Administration Seeks Small Business Support For Health Reforms

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The Obama Administration Tuesday continued its push to enlist small business owners in support of Democratic health reform efforts.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills told a group of small business owners that their efforts to tell members of Congress and people back home about their struggles with health insurance would be critical to reform efforts.

After hearing about the difficulties faced by a Virginia optometrist and a Nebraska screen printing business owner, Sebelius sought to emphasize the progress that has already been made.

"More has happened in healthcare in the last nine months than arguably the last 70 years and we are poised to take a major step forward," she said. "One of the reasons the battle seems a little more ferocious is because the goal line is in sight."

Sebelius also reminded the largely sympathetic audience of the difficulties facing small businesses that seek to provide health insurance for their workers.

"Those of you who have insurance coverage right now can pay two to three times what your larger competitors pay for the same coverage," she said. "You can be locked out or blocked out of the marketplace altogether based on one or two employees' health conditions or preexisting conditions."

She added, "You lose employees each and every day to folks who will go across town or down the block to have a more stable health care environment."

The administration's reforms would seek to make it easier for small businesses to provide coverage, both by offering tax credits and by ensuring the market is more fair by opening up exchanges to pool the resources of many small businesses and individuals to negotiate the best rates.

"Companies can no longer pick and choose who in this country gets health coverage, that's part of our reform," she said.

But Sebelius added that the support of the small business community would be essential to achieving the needed reforms.

"The end is in sight, but we need your voices," she said. "You have got some of the most powerful voices in America on health care."

She added, "The President has said from the outset that you can't fix the economy without fixing health care. It isn't an either-or situation."

Mills also said that the success of small businesses would be critical for fixing the broader economy, adding that health reforms would play an essential role in making small businesses more competitive.

"Since 1986, out of a list of 77 issues, you all have said access to affordable healthcare is your number one concern," she said. "Small business owners want to provide health insurance … and the status quo isn't working."

Mills and Sebelius also fielded questions from some of the business owners as well as from others watching a webcast of the event, many of which were openly sympathetic to the reform cause.

One woman in the room inquired about how they could help their elected leaders overcome the sticker shock of reform price tags approaching $1 trillion over 10 years.

Sebelius responded by reminding the room that the country now pays roughly $2 trillion each year for health care and receives only "mediocre" results.

"A lot of the dollars that you're hearing about are actually dollars that are in the health care system which are just going to be spent wiser and better," she said.

In response to another question, Sebelius reassured the business owners that there would be no requirement to cover seasonal, temporary or part-time employees, though Mills noted that many businesses find that a competitive advantage in being able to lure the best workers.

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