Obama Presses For Health Care Overhaul, Citing Benefits For Small Businesses (VIDEO)

(AP) WASHINGTON � President Barack Obama, citing a new White House study suggesting that small businesses pay far more per employee for health insurance than big companies, said Saturday the disparity is "unsustainable � it's unacceptable."

"And it's going to change when I sign health insurance reform into law," the president said in his weekly Internet and radio address.

A new study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers said small businesses pay up to 18 percent more to provide health insurance for their employees. As a result, fewer of them do so and the number has been shrinking further in these hard economic times.

It was released Saturday as part of the administration's aggressive campaign to build public and congressional support for Obama's health care efforts.

Obama had called for Congress to vote on health legislation by the August recess, but when it became clear this week lawmakers would miss that deadline, he said he expects a bill by year-end.

The White House study said only 49 percent of businesses with three to nine workers and 78 percent of companies with 10 to 24 workers offered any type of health insurance to their employees in 2008. In contrast, 99 percent of companies with more than 200 workers offered health insurance.

Small companies pay proportionately more than big ones because they lack bargaining power and face higher administrative costs, the study found. It said that effectively levied a "heavy tax" on small businesses and their employees.

"Right now, they are getting crushed by skyrocketing health care costs," Obama said, citing the report.

Story continues below

advertisement

Republicans dismissed the new report as more political propaganda by the administration as it struggles to win approval of its centerpiece domestic priority.

"There's a reason why almost every employer and small business group is opposed to the Democrats' government takeover of health care, and that's because it would impose new job-killing taxes during a recession," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "No report can change that."

And in the weekly GOP address, Rep. Cathy McMorris of Washington state, vice chair of the House Republican Conference, said, "America's small businesses will pay a high price." Citing a study by the National Federation of Independent Business, she said Democratic-written proposals would destroy a million more jobs than the economy has already lost.

She called the Democratic efforts "a prescription for disaster – one that will put Washington bureaucrats in charge of your family's personal medical decision."

A proposal in the House calls for employers with a total payroll above $250,000 to offer health insurance to their workers or face a surtax of as much as 8 percent. A Senate committee version would require all businesses, except those with fewer than 25 employees, to provide health coverage or pay a $750 fine per year for each worker.

Congress is weighing plans to bring small businesses into the program that would exempt them from such stiff penalties.

Among the provisions in draft legislation viewed favorably by the administration are: an "insurance exchange" allowing small businesses that meet certain criteria to be able to purchase health insurance from a multitude of plans; and tax credits to help small businesses pay for the coverage.

Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said such provisions would enable small businesses to be "more able to compete with the big boys" in selling their goods and services and "able to compete fairly on a level playing field with big businesses to attract the best workers,"

"The vast majority of small businesses, they'll see their burdens absolutely lessened by the expansion of coverage," Romer said in a conference call with reporters. "So they are absolutely going to be more competitive."

Obama decried what he said were tactics by opponents to block health care overhaul "as a way to inflict political damage on my administration. I'll leave it to them to explain that to the American people."

"Today, after a lot of hard work in Congress, we are closer than ever before to finally passing reform that will reduce costs, expand coverage and provide more choices for our families and businesses," Obama said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, invited small business owners from across the country to a round-table discussion with senior GOP officials on Tuesday to discuss the struggles facing small business. Among those invited, said Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring, are those with businesses in the congressional district of conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, who have raised questions about the cost of the health care efforts.

___

Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/RepublicanConference

Comments

[Radar423]

Maybe if they passed the fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, HR2568, small businesses might be able to afford their own health care instead of seeing billions each year that are ear marked for small businesses go to large corporations.

[hankelvis]

All of your medical information will be collected and stored in a "unified health information system," where it can be accessed via your health-security ID number. General Electric owns the contract to create and maintain the database. They are the largest industrial corporation in the world. They have received stimulus money. They operate large pro-Obama media outlets. These operate in the red without the government cash. This is a conflict of interest. This is a coup. No, he was not elected by the majority in a fair election.
State-run healthcare means no religious component to healthcare allowed under the establishment clause.
Today's Stock Pick-Applied Digital Solutions

[research]

Already available for a fee.

[tugofpolitics]

Yes, there does need to be Health Care reform. That doesn't mean we want Obama's fascist Health Care plan. Pin what pretty words you want around it, it's not what Americans need or want.

We need to return to the founding father's solution of the separation of church and state. Let the church handle her role as a charitable organization in the care of hospitals and patients. People here have a negative knee-jerk reaction to religion, so whatever. But I personally feel better if the people cutting on me feel responsible to an almighty higher power for my well-being. Much less chance of being harvested for organs prematurely. I'm sure there are many agnostics and atheists who feel the divine inspiration behind their noble profession. I'm just saying that it's hard to get around that whole 'loyalty to God first' thing that has annoyed our government for so long.

[NeoStar9]

What in the world does the church have to do with health care, people's access to it, and how much we have to pay to health insurers? Try to stay on topic or don't say anything at all.

[wanked]

obama's health care plan is just another Yes We CON job. I hope it fails because it's rubbish.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/27-9

[kcmookie]

Well you certainly have pi$$ing and moaning down to an art form, don't you?

[Havingfun100]

What the people really think

On MSNBC site

But Ezra Klein points out one thing that Clinton"s effort got right: competition among health insurers. "A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month showed that 62 percent of Americans support the choice of a public insurance option. It's one of the most popular aspects of health-care reform. But if the public option would drive private insurers out of business and reduce consumer choice, the numbers flip, with 58 percent opposing it. What people support, in other words, is not public or private insurance, but choice in insurance. That, along with protection from escalating costs, is the inviolable principle of health-care reform."

[kcmookie]

Great, your cut-and-paste works, but what is your point?

[NeoStar9]

I think President Obama is doing his fair share in hurting his on administration by not giving straight forward and clear answers. By not making it clear he wants and desires a public option he's allowing a lot of doubt and misinformation get out there. He isn't doing anything to stop that misinformation either.

I hate to say this but if Health Care doesn't end up well with a public option I expect President Obama to get a strong primary challenger for 2012 and he would be deserve to be challenged like that.

[republicanforlife]

Blame the GOP? that's all we hear out of this administration. The majority of Americans and small business think this is another waste of time and money. Health care reform not government takover.

[Havingfun100]

Totally agree

[kcmookie]

Douche_bags think alike!

[talkpeople]

well gop gets blamed because it enable this whole mess. too bad if you don't want to hear the truth. yeah keep backing GOP and you'll be bankrupt soon enough

[republicanforlife]

Whats bankrupting this country is out of control spending. Keep passing blame on to everyone else and not accept responsibility we expect from this administration. And when you say "enable" what we can refer to is the receipents of the health insurance payolla which has the democratic party in the lead!

[BlackWidowPilot]

I spent nearly two (2) years trying to get an insurance company to cover me; no takers. Period.

I am not sufficiently impoverished to qualify for the assorted charitable medical care options defenders of the status quo claim would see to my healthcare needs, were they even available in my area.

Why have I been shut out of private insurance coverage? I have too many pre-existing conditions, and because I'm self-employed, I am "not profitable enough."

Got it?

I cannot get healthcare for *any* serious matter unless I go to the ER, and hospitals do indeed have the right to turn uninsured patients away, unless they are in an immediate life threatening condition. Fact: patients have *died* trying to find a hospital to take them in when they had reached a critical state, but had no insurance. Hospitals have been repeatedly caught *dumping* patients who were uninsured, still in need of medical treatment.

Our Declaration of Independence declared that "Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness" are indeed unalienable rights. One cannot exercise any of these unalienable rights if one is sick, and unable to get healthcare in a system as dysfunctional as our perverted for-profit system of corporate predation that you so slavishly defend.

BTW, I hope you don't dare call yourself a Christian, as your shameless defense of corporate profits over human life is pure Social Darwinism, and as unChristian as one can get.

God pity you.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[YewNeekId]

Get off your lazy duff Obama and make this happen. We didn't hire you to play perennial tourist.

There are enough Democrats in the House and Senate to get this done.

Public Option is critical to driving costs down. United Health Care alone sucks $7 billion in profit out of the money stream between you and your doctor.

[dax49]

the gop will say or do anything to de-rail health care reform- for proof, check out fox's frenzy of mis-information about it

[republicanforlife]

Check out the #'s in your party. Thats who's blocking this wastefull bill, but you want to blame the GOP. Whats your excuse now?

[WillTell]

Here are Canada's user costs and employer costs:
User premiums
Currently in Ontario, people who earn salaries above $20,000 must pay an annual health care premium ranging from $300–$900.($25 to $75 per month) Funding for medicare in Ontario also comes in part from a dedicated Employer Health Tax (EHT) that ranges from 0.98%-1.95% of employer payroll. Eligible employers are exempted from EHT on the first $400,000 of payroll. British Columbia and Quebec charge similar premiums. Alberta charged $44 a month or $88 per family until it abolished premiums in 2009

[mike42nola]

The costs are cheap and the coverage isn't worth the costs. Here is a link that indicates the quality and timeliness of getting actual healthcare in Canada, England and Sweden:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams030409.php3

[temenos]

I am a disabled Canadian pensioner who can't sing the praises of our health care system highly enough. When my condition was less severe than it is now I would have to book to see a specialist months in advance. Now that it has worsened It is less than a week. This is as it should be.
When I was working my premiums were $75 a month; now that I am a pensioner they are zero. Furthermore, my provincial pharmacare covers all prescription costs over $250 a year.
I have never had excessive waits for any procedures when they were needed. Those procedures, I might add, would have bankrupted me long ago had I lived in the USA.
I thank my lucky stars that I live in a country where health care is considered a basic human right and I am fed up with shills like you distorting the truth for the benefit of the callously sad excuse for a health care system which exists in your country.

[temenos]

Here's an American with first hand experience of the Canadian system:

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-health-care-part-i

[Rapier]

Throwing more money into a lousy system is not reform. We are missing an historic opportunity. Satire seems all that's left. See "Fat Cats ... " at

http://ofthisandthat.org/SpeciealNews.html

[Havingfun100]

Check this out on NPR website:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92419273

"To fund universal health care in France, workers are required to pay about 21 percent of their income into the national health care system. Employers pick up a little more than half of that. (French employers say these high taxes constrain their ability to hire more people.)"

Also:
"Last year, the French National Health Insurance fund ran a deficit of nearly $9 billion."

[wdw505]

wow........so let's do that .......what a plan.......

laughing........no thanks

[BlackWidowPilot]

Says the Social Darwinist who is a "non-denominational capitalist" who remains "OK with waterboarding."

Anything to protect your chosen deity, The Almighty Dollar.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Havingfun100]

I agree...this is not what we want.

[Havingfun100]

I should say I agree with WDW505

[Dusty Campbell]

it is obvious that big companies would pay less, when you buy in bulk you pay less. that is common knowledge, the more you buy the cheaper you get it. small buisness gets hammered in taxes, if a buisness owner would be allowed to make money(instead of paying most of his profit in taxes) he could afford to expand and hire more people and afford to give them better insurance. but politicians have put so much red tape around small buisness its damn near impossible to do anything. taxing big buisness will only raise the price for the little guy and or make the buisness leave and go to another country.

[wdw505]

well said

[BlackWidowPilot]

Nice fairy tale, except that is not how the corporate aristocracy conducts business in this country, and it is not how the corporate aristocracy runs the sham that is our for-profit system of corporate profits over people's lives that passes for healthcare in America today.

Leland R Erickson

Citizen

One of the 47 Million

[mike42nola]

Let's find out a bit more about you.
Do you have a job?
If so does your employer offer you group health?
If not, how long has it been since you have worked?
How old are you?
This is a good start towards finding out why you don't have health insurance. I am 50 and have been continuously covered since I was 18 through my employers.

[jnah]

big corporations pool their employees to pay a collectively lower rate, hmmmm where does that sound fimiliar? if you work at a large corporation and you get a serious illness your insurer WILL make every attempt to drop you. you think your employer will go to bat for you? HAHAHAHAHAHA not a chance

[November2008]

Last week on Washington Journal (C-Span) Eric Cantor was asked "how much $$$ had he received from insurance companies"? He was asked that question twice by two callers. He avoid giving an answer by ignoring the question.

It was not until the host of the show asked him if he wanted to respond to the last caller's question that he gave a typical "if-I -answer-th­at-questio­n-Obama-wi­ll-look-go­od-and-peo­ple-will-k­now-for-su­re-that-we­-don't really-car­e-about-he­alth care-as-mu­ch-as-we-c­are-about-­saving-big­-insurance­-companies­-$$$" answer...His answer was he did not know followed by "blah,blah,blah"...

In so many words, Yes, I am getting $$$, but I am hoping that you are actually hearing "None."

[Brute]

Health Industry Donations Favor Democrats Over Republicans

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/28/health-industry-donations-favor-democrats-over-republicans/

From Jan. 1, 2007 through March of this year, people and political action committees in the health sector have contributed $42 million and to Democratic candidates for congress and the presidency, compared with $34.6 million to Republicans, Dow Jones Newswires reports.
That’s a 55% to 45% split, and a big shift from the way things have been. From the 1990 election through the present, total health sector donations have favored Republicans 58% to 42%.

In the presidential race, each of the Democratic candidates has taken in more than $5 million from the sector, compared with less than $2 million for John McCain.

[Lean2left]

Of course they changed their priorities, Since the 90's they favored the Cons, When they saw that republican ship is about to sink they found a few blue dogs to take their money. Even a 6 year old could have predicted in Jan1 2007 that the democrats were going to win.

[ldmason45]

My experience as a nurse is all I can go on. Several years back I worked for a plastic surgeon. He and I donated our time each month to the state Crippled Children's Foundation. Most of our work was done on children with congential deformities (cleft lip and palates, deformities of the hands and feet), and burned children. I would spend hours on the phone with Medicaid trying to get them to just pay for the hospital admission. Their excuse for not allowing the surgery would be that it was cosmetic. I'm talking about kids with facial deformities and scalp hair that had been totally burned off in an accident. If these were their children it would have been different. The same goes for Medicare. They would refuse such things as breast reconstruction after a mastectomy saying these women were older anyway and didn't need breast. I just think doctors and their patients should decide on their own treatment. Not government and not their "advisory panel".

[Tulka2]

This sort of "personal experience" would be more compelling if you presented the other side of the picture. How many insurance companies would pay for any of these things? Do you know? Insurance companies get between people and their doctor all the time.

You seem sincere and i wish you could come with me to Canada for a week to sit in a Canadian clinic.

[Havingfun100]

My friend from Canada just came to Hopkins for rotator cuff surgery because he could get better treatment here.....don't know anything else about the Canadian system expect from him and his cousin who is a nurse. We need reform, I agree, but we have the best doctors in the world and they are getting discouraged. Many OBs and Internists are leaving medicine. THey dont see a govt run plan as better. I can only go by the truthful anecdotal evidence from my doctor friends.

[jnah]

talk to some ER doctors and they'll paint you another picture