Details begin to emerge on health-care reform - South Florida Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of healt h insurance premiumsfor full-time employeese under the health care reform bill being considered by the They also would be required to pick up at leas t some of the tab for insuring part-time employees. Businesses that don’tg provide this minimum level of coverage would be required to pay the federal government a fee baseds on 8 percent oftheir payroll. Smalkl businesses under a yet-to-be-determined thresholdx would be exempted fromthis “play or requirement.
The chairmen of three House committeesw with jurisdiction over health care introduced draft legislationJune 19, offerinh the most details yet on how healtu care reform could affect small businesses. Under the small businesses and individuals could shop for insurances through anational exchange, whichh would include a government-ru plan and private insurers. Tax credits would be availablee to help small businesses affordthe coverage. Healtnh insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increasef by 9.2 percent this year, and are expected to increase anothefr 9 percentnext year, according to . Small businesses oftem face much higherrate hikes.
While most smal l businesses agree the current health insurance marketis there’s a lot of disagreement over whether the Houser bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothinfg store and design business called Smashj in Des Moines, Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiumsa by creating more competition in the marketplace. Draper doesn’gt offer health insurance to itsseveh full-time workers, but reimburses them for the cost of policiex they buy on their own. That’s fine with his employees, who are single and in their 20s.
The reimbursements now accountf for 6 percentof Smash’s payroll, but that couls jump to 22 percent in four years, when Drapetr expects everyone on his management team to have children, creatinv the need for family His business couldn’t handle that expense, he If the House bill were he would consider buying insurance through the exchange if it were easy to use. But he mighrt decide to pay the 8 percentf payrollfee instead, then reimburse his employeesz for some of the cost of the policies they purchase througyh the exchange. Draper thinks employers shoul be required to help pay for their health insurance.
Like Social Security contributions, this sort of responsibilith is “kind of what you signed up when you become abusiness owner, he said. Other smallp business owners, however, thinkj the House bill imposes too tough of a standardc onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 percengt of an employee’s premiumj for individual coverage “is much too high for many small saidKaren Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Smallk Business & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businesses can afford coverage is by making employeexs pick up more ofthe cost, she Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowers & Gifts Too!
, for pays 50 percent of the cost of healtb insurance for seven full-time Even that may not be affordable next year, because “our ratews are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the Housre Small Business Committee earlier this