Business Sours on Overhaul as Legislation Veers to Left

From The Wall Street Journal:

Chances of business supporting the Obama administration's health overhaul are fading fast, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill took a liberal turn.

The Obama administration has courted small businesses from the start, and at times executives have shown favor toward Democratic plans such as the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee last month.

But when Mr. Reid decided to include a new public health-insurance plan in his bill and added a Medicare payroll tax increase for high earners, business groups said enough was enough.

Several industry groups are banding together to ask Congress to scrap the current bills and start from scratch on a health overhaul.

[H]ealth-policy experts say employers are unlikely to get quick relief for their most pressing concern -- steep annual increases in health-insurance premiums.

The Senate bill fines employers up to $750 a year for each employee if they don't offer a health-insurance plan, and these employees get a new government tax credit to buy insurance on their own. Employers that offer insurance but not an affordable plan are fined the lesser of $3,000 for each worker who gets a tax credit or $750 for every employee. Employers with fewer than 50 workers are exempt, and small firms would get new tax credits to offset the cost of providing insurance.
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My law office provides health insurance for our employees. Many, many small businesses do not. It is expensive, very expensive. Although my office has fewer than 50 workers and thus would be exempt under the Senate bill, a $750 annual fine hardly has me shacking in my boots considering my firm pays $900 or so a month per employee for an employee's health insurance.