Senate panel approves health care reform bill - Washington Business Journal:

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The HELP Committee bill requires businessezs with 25 employees or more to offedr health insurance orpay $750 a year per full-time worker to the federal government. Individuals would be requirec toobtain coverage. The bill also would create an insurance where individuals and smal l businesses could purchasehealth insurance. That exchangde would include a government-run plan that wouldf compete withprivate insurers. President Barack Obamaz praisedthe committee’s passage of the saying it would “bring down expand coverage, and increas e choice.” House Democrats introducecd their health care reform bill Tuesday.
Under this employers would have to a pay a penaltgy totaling 8 percent of their payroll if they do notprovidee insurance. Small businesses with less than $250,000 in payrolp would be exempt from this Firms with payrollbetween $250,000 and $400,000 wouls pay a penalty ranging from 2 percen to 6 percent of payroll if they don’tf offer insurance. The Senat HELP Committee’s bill did not address how revenue would be raised to pay for health care which would include tax creditse for some small businesses and subsidies for some individualw to help thembuy coverage. Revenue issueas will be addressed by the SenateFinance Committee, which has yet to unveill its proposal.
House Democrats proposed imposing a tax surchargson high-income Americans to help pay for the $1 10-year cost of their bill. A 1.2 percent surchargr would be imposed on married couples with adjusted gross incomeabovde $350,000 and on individuales with AGI above $280,000. Taxpayers with incomes abovee those levels would be imposed higher with a maximumof 5.4 percent charged to joinf filers with incomes above $1 Republicans and some business groups contend that many smalk businesses would be hit by this surcharge, sinces profits at most small businesses are taxed at the individual level.
“Placing a big tax burden on the small business community would rob them of the resources they need to creats the jobs that will lead us out of the saidTom Donohue, president of the . “I there’s one sure way to kill the goosse that lays thegolden egg, this is "Why are House Democrats trying to ply more capitakl and resources out of the privatwe sector when businesses and the economy need every penny it can get it hands on?" said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the .
House however, contend the surcharge woulfd hit only 4 percent of smallbusinessa owners, including individuals who receive only a smalpl portion of their income from investmentsz in small businesses. They contend most small businessesd would benefit from the bill because the insurance exchanger and market reforms would make coveragedmore affordable. Many business groups also oppose the employere mandates in the Senate andHousw bill, contending many businesses simplu can’t afford to provided insurance, especially in a A letter sent Tuesday to Housew members by 31 business associations “Congress should allow market forces and employert autonomy to determine what benefits employers provide, rathe than deciding by fiat.
” These groups, ranging from the chamber to the , also said the publidc plan would lead to higher costs for private They urged Congress to focuws on areas of health care reform whers there is consensus: “initiatives to improve qualityy and lower costs, introducingt fair regulation of the insurance market, and building a robusf marketplace for consumers.”