Business working behind scenes to shape health care reform - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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President Obama has mobilized the grass-roots supporters that helpexd elect him to lobbuy for his vision of healthcare reform, which includese offering Americans a government-run health plan as an alternative to privatee insurance. A coalition of labor unions and progressivde organizations plans tospend $82 millionn on organizing efforts, advertising, researchb and lobbying to support the Obama Business groups, meanwhile, mostly are workinb behind the scenes to shape the Although they have seriouzs concerns about some of the proposalw — including the public plan option and a mandate for employere to provide insurance — few are tryin to block health care reform at this The cost of health insurance has become so burdensomed that something needs to be done, they “Nobody supports the status said James Gelfand, the ’a senior manager of health policy.
“Wde absolutely have to have reform.” For most business that means reining in health care costs and reforming insuranc e markets so that employers have more choices in the types ofplans available. To achieve those however, businesses might have to swallow somebitter medicine. An employer mandate tops the list of concernzs for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintonh pushed his health care reform plan in the 1990s. The Senates bill might include a provision that would required employers to either provide health insurance to theif employees or pay a fee to thefederal government.
Some small-businessd owners don’t have a problem with that, includinv members of the MainStreet Alliance, which is part of the coalitio lobbying for the Obama plan. “The way our system works now, where responsiblw employers offer coverage andothers don’t, leave s us in a situation with an unleveo playing field,” 11 alliance members said in a statement submitte d to the Senate Finance Committee. “If we’re contributing but othet employers aren’t, that gives them a financial advantagedover us,” the statement said.
“Wee need to level the playing fieled through a system where everyonwe pitches in a reasonable But most business lobbyists contened that employers who can afford to provide healt h insurance do so already because it helpzs them attract and keep good Businessesthat don’t provide health insurance tend to be “marginall y profitable,” said Denny Dennis, senior research felloew at the NFIB Research Foundation. Imposing a insurance requirement on these businesses would cost the economh morethan 1.
6 million jobs, according to a Tax credits could offset some of the costs for providing this coverage, but Gelfand said the creditz that are under discussion are “extremely limited.” Congressx also could exempt some small businesses — such as firms with less than $500,000p in annual payroll — from the employeer mandate. But many business groupsd see this proposal as an attempt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningful “We oppose small-business carve-outs because they make it easierd for Congress to apply mandates against large r employers,” said Neil Trautwein, vice presidentf and employee benefits policy counsel of the Nationalo Retail Federation.
“It’s also easy for Congress to come back and try to applh the mandateagainst ever-smaller employers. “N matter how good the surrounding healt hcare reform, a bill containing an employeer mandate would be too high a pricde to pay for reform,” Trautwein Public plan or market reforms?