Spokesmen for small business groups today expressed enthusiastic support for a major health reform plan crafted by Democrats in the U.S. House.
“This is a godsend to the small business community. I will not be alone in supporting this extraordinary effort,” said Kelly Conklin, co-owner of an architectural woodworking company in Bloomfield, N.J. that employs 13 people.
Conklin was representing the Main Street Alliance, a network of small business coalitions formed in 2008 to promote health reform.
It was the third day of hearings by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, which has been reviewing an 852-page draft proposal that includes a major expansion of Medicaid and a new public health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.
The proposal also had support from labor groups, including the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, the largest in the U.S. with more than 1 million members.
“Affordability credits for families between 133 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line, the Medicaid expansion, and the cap on premium contributions and out-of-pocket expenses will make health care more affordable and thereby more accessible for millions of working families,” said Dennis Rivera, a spokesman for the SEIU, describing some of the plan’s features.
But Republicans and some analysts who appeared before the committee continued to protest the plan’s anticipated costs. There are no official estimates, yet, but one analysis cited by the Republicans concluded the plan would cost more than $3.5 trillion over 10 years.
The Lewin Group, a research firm owned by the private health insurer UnitedHealth, published a report saying a public plan option would reduce hospitals’ net revenue by $33 billion and that of doctors by $36 billion. The report also predicted the number of persons with private insurance would decline by almost 120 million.
Democrats dismissed the report, noting the company’s financial ties to the insurance industry. The reform draft was only made public last Friday and estimates of its costs by the Congressional Budget Office are not completed.
The idea of a national public plan option also earned resistance from officials with L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest public health plan.
Chief Executive Howard Kahn told committee members that a public plan option could help cover more people and cut costs but that smaller local or regional plans would be better.
“I recommend that the creation of a monolithic national public plan be avoided,” he said. “Health care is at its core local. As we already know, bigger plans do not necessarily save on costs any more effectively than local or regional plans, nor should a large national public plan expect to.”
In all, the committee heard from 23 witnesses, including representatives of health care provider groups and insurers. Most expressed some concerns about the proposal for a public plan option.
Also on Thursday, The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee continued its markup of the Senate’s leading reform plan.
U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the Democrats’ plan would “bankrupt our nation, bankrupt our children and make this nation a pauper.”
Republicans also continued to protest that Democrats were trying to push the legislation through too quickly without regard to GOP concerns.
But the committee’s acting chairman U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the panel had accepted about 85 Republican amendments that would be considered before the measure leaves the committee.
Dodd said he hoped to have the full language of the bill ready by the beginning of next week so that members could study it over the July 4 break.
Congress returns from recess July 5