The White House’s responses to small business concerns on health care
Thanks to the thousands of small business owners and professionals for submitting your questions to the White House's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) through LinkedIn Answers on some of the most important issues you're dealing with around health care. We appreciate the thoughtfulness and passion with which you've crafted these questions.
We'd also like to thank the members of LinkedIn's small business committee (David Reingold, Donald Rossberg, Jim Locke, Abraham Jankans, and Rudy Sutherland) who helped pick the questions that were answered by the CEA chair, Christina Romer at a live web video conference this past week (see below video).
Given below are the questions from LinkedIn's small business community that were answered by the CEA. Check out a more detailed response to these questions in the video above:
1. How will the current health care proposals level the playing field so small businesses can effectively compete with large corporations for human capital?
- Abraham Jankans, President & CEO at LaunchPad Careers Inc. (Los Angeles)
2. How will you make health care affordable and available to small business? What about co-ops, affordable rates and inclusion of pre-existing conditions?
- from Kyra Cavanaugh, President of Life Meets Work Inc. (Chicago)
Kyra’s commentary:
For so many of us who've left jobs in corporate America with great health benefits to forge our own path through entrepreneurship, our families are left to suffer with sub-standard insurance and inclusion in the class of under-insured Americans.
3. How will you improve competition in health care, to allow for more competitive health plans, and what with this plan to do promote a more health environment through wellness?
- from A.J. Vazquez III, Founding Partner, AJV-Attorneys at Law (Miami)
A.J.’s commentary:
Affordability and availability. A small business owner should have a competitive selection of comparable health plans to choose from. As a small business owner taking care of my people is important to me. Creating an environment that focuses on wellness is a priority at my law firm. Healthy, productive employees are not only great for your company but is ultimately great for their respective families and our communities at large. It's a win - win situation in the end that's well worth the effort.
4. How did we get from providing insurance as a benefit, to the "requirement" that businesses provide insurance?
- from Marc Young, President at Zantech, Inc (watch repair company in Peoria, Illinois)
Marc’s commentary:
If we recognize that there are three basic tiers in the health care issue. Tier one - the providers (doctors, hospitals), this is where the “cost factors” begin. Many providers do not post their prices and they are not generally required or incented to be competitive with real cost hidden by the other Tiers; Tier two – the insurance companies, help to hide these costs and tack on their own costs as well as profits they earn; and Tier three – business that provide health coverage, although not directly adding to the cost of healthcare must increase their prices to generate more profits to cover the costs passed on to them from Tiers 1 and 2 less whatever recovery of costs they can get from their employee base. Since Insurance was never intended to be a perk but rather to be a necessary component of running a business, provided to compete for better employees.
5. Is making small businesses responsible for providing health care simply giving a competitive advantage to big businesses? Why not start with Tort reform and mandating insurers to cover pre-existing conditions with all policies being full portable, regardless of state, company or position?
- from Donald Rossberg, President of Dataworks, Inc. (IT consulting firm in Kansas City, Missouri)
To read more questions submitted by our users over the past week (over 1500 submissions), please go here.