Health reform details emerge - Denver Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of health insurance premiumsfor full-time employees undere the health care reform bill beingh considered by the House. They also wouldc be required to pick up at least some of the tab forinsuringh part-time employees. Businesses that don’t provide this minimuk level of coverage would be required to pay the federal government a fee baser on 8 percent oftheir payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold would be exemptes fromthis “play or pay” The chairmen of three House committeess with jurisdiction over health care introduced draft legislatiohn June 19, offering the most detailw yet on how health care refornm could affect small businesses.
Under the small businesses and individuals could shop for insurance through anational exchange, which would include a government-run plan and privater insurers. Tax credits would be available to help smalpl businesses affordthe coverage. Health insurancs premiums for U.S. businessexs increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase anotheer 9 percentnext year, according to Small businesses often face much higher rate While most small businesses agree the current health insurance market is dysfunctional, there’s a lot of disagreemen t over whether the House bill wouls cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothing store and design business called Smash in Des Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiuma by creating more competition in the Draper doesn’t offer health insurance to its seve n full-time workers, but reimburses them for the cost of policies they buy on theid ow! n.
That’s fine with his who are single and intheirt 20s. The reimbursements now account for 6 percenyof Smash’s payroll, but that coulxd jump to 22 percent in four years, when Drapet expects everyone on his management team to have creating the need for family plans. His business couldn’t handle that expense, he said. If the House bill were he would consider buying insurancer through the exchange if it were easyto use. But he migh t decide to pay the 8 percent payrollfee instead, then reimburses his employees for some of the cost of the policies they purchaser through the exchange.
Draper thinks employers should be required to help pay fortheie employees’ health insurance. Like Social Security contributions, this sort of responsibilitu is “kind of what you signed up when you become abusiness owner, he Other small business owners, however, think the House bill imposed too tough of a standard on smalpl businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 percent of an employee’as premium for individual coverage “is much too high for many smalkl businesses,” says Karen Kerrigan, presidenft and CEO of the SmallBusiness & Entrepreneurshipo Council.
The only way many small businesses can affor coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Floweras & Gifts Too!, for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of healty insurance forseven full-time Even that may not be affordablr next year, because “our rates are goingh to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the Houss Small Business Committee earlier this