Obama Touts Healthcare Plan for Small Businesses

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Obama touts healthcare plan for small businesses
Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:22am EDT
By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said Saturday that Democratic plans to revamp the U.S. healthcare system would benefit small businesses, an argument that quickly drew criticism from his Republican opponents.

- snip -

Democratic plans would require many small businesses to provide insurance for their employees or face a penalty. Some small-business owners worry that will add a punitive cost at a time when they are struggling to rebound from the recession.

Obama used his weekly radio address to insist that small businesses had a lot to gain from the healthcare overhaul, based on a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Small businesses, he said, would be able to purchase health insurance through an "insurance exchange."

He described that as a "marketplace where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56H12J20090725

[aquart]

1. Release business from the healthcare burden.

The more I hear, the more miserable and hopeless I feel.

[dipsydoodle]

2. If you use the UK as an analogy

Employers pay 12.8% in NH contributions, above a threshold of c. US$9000 , with no upper limit.

Your average wage is c. $48000 - that's a statistic for 2008 : not a figure I made up.

It follows on that amount that a US employer would pay 12.8% x $39000 which is roughly $5000 p.a / employee.

How does that compare with what your employers actually pay ?

[No Elephants]

10. Regardless of whether $48000 is accurate, using an average is not

useful.

If you average a minimum wage salary with the salary of an exec making $40 million a year, you get a number that is a average of the two, but it doesn't tell you a lot when it comes to health care. Maybe a bell curve or some other kind of chart or grapn would be more useful for this purpose.

In any case, single payer is the way to go.

[4dsc]

13. Bring on single payer..

[ixion]

3. ugh... Mr. Obama... forcing small businesses to increase their operating costs

will not 'help' them.

That is what is know as bureaucratic double-speak.

[Demeter]

4. God Save Us From This Kind of Help--Bring on Single Payer!

[Honeycombe8]

5. This will cause some small businesses to shut their doors.

I used to own a small sandwich place w/my hubby...many years ago. We had two employees. If we'd had to pay anything more than we had to at that time, we would've had to go out of business (which we did eventually, anyway).

It was month to month meeting our financial obligations. Not a penny to spare.

[Iowa]

6. This is a complete farce. Single payer is the answer.

Obama is kowtowing to corps and selling out this country. His rhetoric is phony, empty, and dishonest.

[RantinRavin]

9. And where exactly does the "single payer"

get the funds to pay with ?

[No Elephants]

11. From taxes and from savings that it should and hopefully would get.

But those who would pay the taxes are now paying anywhere from $7,000 to almost $50,000 per year for health care insurance.

The first source of savingsa--billions per year in profits currently being made by health care companies.

The second source--more billions in the salaries, fringe benefits, pensions, etc. of the execs of those companies.

There are other sources as well, but I don't feel like typing any more in this post. You can google, if you like.

[No Elephants]

12. 289 posts for RantinRavin since 2007. I always wonder what brings people to DU.

[RantinRavin]

14. Sorry I don't live my life

on an internet message board.

[Iowa]

15. C'mon man, that's so basic you should know it. Educate yourself on the issues before posting. n/t

[TexasObserver]

7. Recommend

[Vinca]

8. It's idiotic that a job and healthcare are attached.

Imagine the number of small businesses that would sprout and the number of jobs that wouldn't be outsourced if health coverage was separated from what I suppose is called "tradition."