Health Care Reform & The Small Business Owner
While the President and Congress continue the tug of war over national health care reform, small businesses, including the manufacturers of specialized farm equipment, continue to be left without the ability to plan future costs of doing business.
Both the plan passed by the House and the December deals that finally made it through the Senate, are massively expensive bills the nation can’t afford. Worse yet, neither bill tackles the real problem of soaring costs. The President’s plan, from what we have gathered, could, among other things, be most damaging to small businesses.
Under the President’s plan, employer mandates become even more expensive for some and no less expensive for any. It simply orders firms to pay for insurance and/or pay stiff fines. It does nothing that will lead to lower costs or provide more options. The President’s proposal increases entitlements, taxes and federal government controls over health care. (Watch for the White House to start hammering the message that the cost of failure this far in, is simply too high and this plan must be passed at all costs.)
From our reading, Dr. Robert F. Graboyes, Senior Heath Care Advisor to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), seems to have a firm grasp of the various bills and amendments offered. His position is that the problems of American health care — high and volatile costs, the uninsured, and inadequate choices of insurance and providers — fall most heavily on small business.
Dr. Graboyes recently wrote, “Health care is especially problematic for small business because traditional employer-sponsored insurance [ESI] has never worked well for small firms. Small firms lack the flexibility to navigate the insurance marketplace the way large firms do. So for small firms, ESI means higher costs, lower coverage rates, and fewer choices than large employers experience. And as small-business employees change jobs or stop working for periods of time, they are forced to pass through the dysfunctional individual insurance market.”
In Dr. Graboyes’ opinion, the best idea to surface so far is the Wyden-Collins-Bayh Optional Free Choice Vouchers amendment, offered in December. Offered by a Democrat, based on conservative market-oriented tools, and boasting bipartisan sponsorship. This amendment offered small business another choice, a small firm friendly variation on ESI.
Under this plan, a small firm could shift from one company-wide health plan to a choice of plans supported by a defined contribution. Instead of a one-size-fits-all insurance policy, employers would offer pre-tax dollars with which to purchase the plan of the employees choice in a reformed marketplace. Best of all, the employer would be free to choose how much to contribute, as it is today. Employees could carry their insurance policies from one job to another and keep them when they become unemployed.
Unfortunately, this bipartisan proposal will remain just that — a proposal — as have ideas such as allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, allowing trade associations to form groups, and tort reform — all ideas nowhere to be found.
As an employer, you are part of a very small minority that buys their own insurance. The majority of those with health care coverage do not have insurance but health benefits, provided by their private employer, and that’s just not the same thing.
Your member of Congress and Senator most likely have already staked out their position and it’s unlikely your views would be able to convince them one way or another. With that said, they still need to hear from you. You are the one paying the bills and you are the one buying the insurance and creating the jobs. We suggest you remind your elected representatives of that fact early and often.
We welcome your views on this or any other industry issue, and as space permits, we would like begin sharing the opinions of our members in this publication.
To send your comments please email Shortliner@FarmEquip.org. We look forward to hearing from you.