Obama woos small business to support health reform

Obama told small business owners Thursday that Democrats' health reform plans would mean million of their peers would get new tax credits to help pay for insurance and that the smallest firms could save around 25 percent on insurance costs through new exchanges, BusinessWeek reports. In addition to the president's speech to business people in Washington, the White House published a report pitching those and other benefits. It places the number of businesses in line for tax credits at 3.6 million (Tozzi, 10/29).

"We all know that family premiums have skyrocketed more than 130 percent over the past decade," Obama said, according to the Washington Times. "But small businesses have been hit harder than most. ... because small businesses pay higher administrative costs than large ones, your employees pay up to 18 percent more in premiums for the very same health insurance policies" (Weber, 10/29).

The crowd "included owners of small businesses and officials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobbying group that has opposed him on issues including healthcare, taxes and climate change," Reuters reports. The chamber "has also launched television commercials on cable television to fight the so-called 'public option' -- a government-run healthcare insurance program that some companies say will drive up costs for employers and workers" (Zengerle, 10/29).

 


Kaiser Health NewsThis article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

 

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
Post a new comment
Post

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
Enhancing the adoption of pragmatic clinical trial results in healthcare systems