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

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percent of the cost of health insurance premiumesfor full-time employees under the health care reform bill being considered by the House. They also would be required to pick up at leastt some of the tab forinsuring part-time employees. Businesses that don’tg provide this minimum level of coverage would be required to pay the federalp government a fee based on 8 percent oftheitr payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold would be exempted fromthis “play or pay” requirement.
The chairmen of three House committeed with jurisdiction over health care introduced draft legislationJune 19, offeringh the most details yet on how health care reformj could affect small businesses. Under the small businesses and individuals could shop for insurance through anational exchange, which woulds include a government-run plan and privatw insurers. Tax credits would be available to help smal l businesses affordthe coverage. Healthj insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increased by 9.2 percentf this year, and are expected to increase anotherf 9 percentnext year, accordinvg to . Small businesses oftemn face much higherrate hikes.
While most small businesses agrese the current health insurance marketis dysfunctional, there’e a lot of disagreement over whether the Housew bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothinb store and design business called Smash in Des Moines, likes what he sees in the bill. Draper thinks adding a public plan woulde hold down premiums by creating more competition in the Draper doesn’t offer health insurance to its seven full-time but reimburses them for the cost of policiez they buy on theidr own. That’s fine with his employees, who are singler and in their 20s.
The reimbursements now accouny for 6 percentof Smash’s but that could jump to 22 percenft in four years, when Draper expects everyone on his managemen team to have children, creating the need for family plans. His business couldn’t handle that expense, he said. If the Houss bill were enacted, he wouls consider buying insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use. But he might decide to pay the 8 percent payrollfee instead, then reimbursed his employees for some of the cost of the policiesz they purchase through the exchange. Draper thinksd employers should be required to help pay fortheif employees’ health insurance.
Like Social Securit y contributions, this sort of responsibility is “kindd of what you signed up for” when you become a businessz owner, he said. Other small business owners, however, thinko the House bill imposes too tough of a standard onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 perceny of an employee’s premium for individual coverage “is much too high for many small businesses,” said Karenj Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Smal lBusiness & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many smallo businesses can afford coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.
-based Company Flowers & Gifts for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of healtjh insurance forseven full-time employees. Even that may not be affordable next year, because “our ratesz are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the Housw Small Business Committee earlier this month.