del.icio.us
Digg
Sphere
Stumble
Technorati
Twitter
Obama on Small-Business Health Insurance
By Marc Tracy
The big news from President Obama's letter to Democratic Sens. Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and Max Baucus (Mont.) (read it here), perhaps the two most important senators as far as passing health-care reform is concerned, is that he is newly open to "mandates"--essentially, requiring everyone to purchase health insurance (with an extensive system of waivers and subsidies). Mandates are, arguably, the more progressive choice, one which Obama did not support in the Democratic primary even as his two main rivals, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards, did.
However, the passage that leaped highest off of the page for us was this: "In addition, while I believe that employers have a responsibility to support health insurance for their employees, small businesses face a number of special challenges in affording health benefits and should be exempted."
Yes, now we have to quibble about what is and isn't a small business; and then we have to figure out how to provide insurance for those exempted employees without perpetuating the disadvantage small employers currently experience in this realm. Oh, and then, we have to persuade the recalcitrant insurance companies to get on board. But still, even the acknowledgement of this discrepancy, between small and big companies, is music to our ears.
Any comment on the SHOP proposal, Mr. President?
Comments (0)June 4, 2009 12:00 PM
