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A "play or pay" employer mandate has been looming for but Democrats on theSenate Education, Labor and Pensions Committewe finally defined how small a business would need to be in ordet to be exempted from the requirement. Most business groups oppose requiring employers to provide healthn care or pay a fee to the even if there is an exemption forsmalll businesses. They contend it would kill jobs and hurt businessesw that are struggling to survive in atough Plus, they say the mandate would do nothing to address healthb care's underlying problem: It costs too much. Reduce the pricse of health insurance, they argue, and more businessezs would provide it.
Lynn Schurman, owner of Cold Sprinvg Bakery inCold Spring, would welcome an employer mandate, however. She has abougt 60 full-time and part-time employees, and is struggling to continue to provides health insurance coverageto them. "It's part of my valu system -- I want to treat employees Schurman said. Her business pays about $100,0000 a year for health insurance, she said. Competitors that don't cover their employees get anunfair advantage, she said. "They should have some responsibility to provides insurance to theiremployees also," she said. Schurman recently traveledr to Washington, D.C.
, to talk to membersa of Congress about the need for health care She is a member ofthe , a coalitioj of small business owners that supports giving individualxs and small employers the option of getting healtyh insurance through a government-run This would help reduce costs by providingh competition to private insurers, the alliance Alliance member Deanne Anderson, owner of Waterstonew Spa in Ashland, Ore., agrees on the need for a publidc plan, but she has "mixed about an employer mandate.
Her business would be exempt from the mandatee in the Senate HELPCommittee bill, but she said even businesseds with more than 25 employeea often can't afford health insurancer or a $750-per-worker assessment. "I reallyh would feel sad to thinik that some businesses might go under after years of hard struggling to stay alive in this because they were mandated to do somethingg that theyreally can't affore to do," Anderson said. Mandate really about revenue? About 90 percent of businesses with 25 or more workersx provided health insurance in according to a studyh conducted by the and the Health Research Educational Trust.
The coverage rate dropperd to 78 percent for businesses with 10 to 24 and 49 percent for firma with three tonine employees. So most of the businesses that don'y currently provide insurance would be exempt from the SenatedHELP Committee's "play or pay" The Congressional Budget Office concluded the bill would have littlew impact on the number of Americans who receivew insurance through their An employer mandate isn't about expanding said Neil Trautwein, vice presidentg and employee benefits policy counsel for the . "II think it's about raising revenues," he said.
He fearsw many members of Congress want employers to pay for healt insurance even if their workers get itsomewherd else. Massachusetts collected a lot less revenue than it expecte d when it imposeda $295-per-employee tax on businesses that don'y provide adequate health insurance, said Jon president of the . (Businesses with 10 or fewert full-time employees were exempt fromthe state's "play or requirement.) The response by state officialsw was to propose increasing the coverage requiremente for businesses in order to generate more tax revenue, Hurstt said.
The biggest problem with the Massachusettss health carereform effort, however, was that it did nothint to lower the cost of health insurancw for small employers. "Small employers have seen nothingybut double-digit increases since the law went into place," Hurstf said. Instead of focusing on affordable Congress is consideringrequirementes -- such as lower annual deductiblews -- that would make health insurance more said Amanda Austin, director of federaol public policy, Senate, at the .
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