MARC Coalition

  • Home
  • About
    • Accomplishments
  • MSP POLICY WINS
    • PAID ACT - 12/11/20
    • SMART ACT - 1/10/13
  • Membership
  • Policy Priorities
    • PAID Act Implementation
    • Section 111 Penalties
    • Ongoing Responsibility for Medicals (ORM)
    • Treasury Offset Program (TOP)
    • Future Medicals in Liability Cases
  • Newsroom
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Accomplishments
  • MSP POLICY WINS
    • PAID ACT - 12/11/20
    • SMART ACT - 1/10/13
  • Membership
  • Policy Priorities
    • PAID Act Implementation
    • Section 111 Penalties
    • Ongoing Responsibility for Medicals (ORM)
    • Treasury Offset Program (TOP)
    • Future Medicals in Liability Cases
  • Newsroom
  • Contact

Newsroom

Dingell: Health reform benefits businesses

5/20/2010

 
​In March, Mark Hodesh watched the debate, read the stories, and closely studied the health care reform bill. And after taking in all the changes and how the reform law would affect the 11-person, 100-year-old Downtown Home and Garden store he runs in Ann Arbor, he calculated that he would actually save money and could hire a new employee.
"We and other small businesses may spend the health care cost savings on additional insurance for our employees (we could cover 100 percent rather than 75 percent of their costs) or on business expansion. Either way it will put the savings back into the economy," Hodesh said in a letter to my office.

'Pure stimulus'
I am confident others will see what Hodesh found -- the health care law is pure stimulus. More than 11,000 area entrepreneurs will join as many as 4 million small businesses across America benefitting from $40 billion in tax credits -- and those benefits begin immediately.

In 2010, small business employers will be eligible to claim 35 percent of premiums paid. In 2014, the credit increases to 50 percent.

Small businesses have been getting crushed by health care costs. Hodesh says health care for his business went up 300 percent over 10 years.

"I can't raise the cost of a frying pan to cover it," he said.

Besides cold hard cash, the law gives our small businesses new incentives to woo the best and brightest employees.

The Council of Economic Advisers reported in July that "(o)nly 49 percent of firms with 3 to 9 workers and 78 percent of firms with 10 to 24 workers offered any type of health insurance to their employees in 2008."

Time Magazine wrote last November "(w)orkers at companies with fewer than 200 employees (that offer coverage) pay an average of $4,204 out of pocket per year for family health insurance, compared with $3,182 for workers at firms above the 200-employee threshold."

Moe Yassine, president of Teraeon, a Dearborn Internet consulting firm, told me his business "for a long time could not afford to purchase health insurance for its employees. I can tell you that good employees do not want to work for a company that does not provide health insurance."

He later said the new law would help him afford more insurance for his workers.

Elaine Selo, owner of Selo/Shevel Gallery in Ann Arbor, adds "we like to keep good people around. They are talented and trained. If you can't keep them around, you are losing ground."

More good than harm
As for the argument that the new law creates too much red tape and additional burdens, I will borrow the wise insight of Ms. Selo, who notes that the law "provides us with a tax break for simply doing more of what we are doing ... providing health care to the people who work just as hard in our store as we do."

While we are offering small business owners a historic tax cut, small-minded opponents of reform want to make this into an argument about paperwork hoping people won't notice.

But buyer beware: repealing these tax cuts will make items at your favorite clothing, hardware and toy stores more expensive.

Groups like The National Federation of Independent Business seem determined to convince members the new law does more harm than good. They point to the employer mandate, saying it presents dire consequences for small business.

The NFIB doesn't tell members that any company with less than 50 employees is exempt from the mandate. They also fail to mention that small businesses currently pay an average of 18 percent more in premiums than large firms for the exact same benefits. This new law will end this inequity: small businesses will be able to get insurance through the new exchanges, enabling them to leverage the purchasing power that comes from pooling large groups of people and giving them similar prices to those enjoyed by large businesses.

There are those who ask me why some business executives and the organizations that represent them are spreading lies and inciting fear.

I can't speak for the opposition. But opponents of the new law ought to listen to the folks on the ground, those keeping commerce alive on Main Street -- running stores and surviving through the worst economic conditions in recent history.

​They are finding a lot of good in this bill. And good news for them is great news for Michigan's workers.
100520hcrsmallbusiness.pdf
File Size: 120 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

How can online marketing help you link
7/17/2017 06:51:55 pm

I have never expected something less than this from you and you have not disappointed me at all.


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    December 2020
    September 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    January 2015
    July 2014
    April 2014
    December 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    October 2008

    RSS Feed

MARC COALITION

Picture
Picture

Copyright ©2021