07/25/2008
CONTACT: Bill Vernon, 617-482-1327 or Jason Brewer, 202-406-4435
BOSTON -- The following column from Bill Vernon, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business/Massachusetts, may be used in whole or part as an op-ed in your media outlet, or as part of any story you prepare on healthcare legislation currently being debated on Beacon Hill. To obtain a headshot of Vernon, please e-mail jason.brewer@nfib.org. Thank you.
When Massachusetts enacted landmark healthcare reform in 2006, small business owners were hopeful that reform would reduce the number of uninsured, bring more people into the state's healthcare pool and lower costs across the board. The concepts behind reform had merit. With fewer uninsured and more competition for healthcare dollars, predictions were that healthcare costs in Massachusetts would stabilize and runaway premium increases would be a thing of the past.
But two years later healthcare reform is in jeopardy. While the number of uninsured has shrunk, health insurance costs continue to spiral out of control at a time when small employers are being squeezed from every direction imaginable. Absorbing double-digit premium increases was bad enough in years past, but with an uncertain economy and energy prices choking the bottom line of small employers, skyrocketing healthcare bills are a continuing albatross.
What happened to making healthcare more affordable? Government happened.
Instead of seeking innovative ways to deliver healthcare services at lower costs, lawmakers and bureaucrats have been busy adding rules, regulations and fees to our state's healthcare system. Rather than create flexible health insurance products to help small employers find the right benefits package for their employees, lawmakers and state regulators are heaping mandate after mandate onto healthcare plans. The free-market reform we were hoping for is being strangled with red tape.
Now Gov. Patrick proposes higher fees on employers to pay for a possible funding shortfall for the higher state expenses resulting from the rules and regulations. The governor says we need to increase the so-called 'fair share contribution' from business, changing the statutes and regulations and fee amounts, if necessary, until the state's annual take reaches $38 million -- a 500 percent increase in revenue.
The governor's plan not only smacks large and small businesses at a time when they can least afford it, but it ignores the fact that business is already doing its part. Private sector businesses pay 75 percent of the cost of health insurance of employees. In fact, since Jan. 1, 2007, the number of Massachusetts residents receiving employer subsidized insurance in the private sector has increased by 85,000 at a cost of $500 million to private employers.
