Sen. Obama’s Health Care Plan: What About Small Businesses?

Question 2: Many small companies want to provide their employees with health insurance, but they simply can’t afford to. Do you have plans to help small businesses provide their employees with affordable health insurance?

I will create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit. It will help small businesses that provide all of their employees with quality insurance by giving them a tax credit worth 50% of the premiums paid on behalf of employees.

The Obama-Biden plan will also allow small businesses to purchase health insurance in new, low-risk pools available through the private and public options in the National Health Insurance Exchange. These steps will directly help small businesses offer affordable health insurance to their employees.

And by reducing health care costs, our plan will save all employers $140 billion per year.

First, the Obama-Biden plan includes a reinsurance pool for employers. If employer health care costs exceed a certain amount, the federal government will pick up the tab, as long as the employer agrees to pass the savings on to their employees. That helps businesses who have that one sick employee to be able to continue offering health insurance to their employees and keep their doors open.

Second, our plan goes beyond short-term fixes to address the main cost drivers in health care, which will help to stabilize the rising costs of health care. Right now, the costs of health care are simply unsustainable over the long-term. The Obama-Biden plan makes a real investment in health IT and other health system changes, which will dramatically improve quality and efficiency of the health care system, bringing it into the 21st century.

As another way to go beyond short-term fixes, the Obama-Biden plan will also aggressively hold the insurance and pharmaceutical industries accountable for unfair and abusive practices that are raising prices for families and employers. Additionally, we will invest in prevention and public health systems, which will help Americans stay healthy and lower costs related to treating preventable diseases.

Third, for employers that already offer coverage to their employees, the Obama-Biden plan will make it less costly for them to continue to do so, because every American will be covered. The health care costs of the uninsured will no longer be passed along to those who do have health insurance, which will drive down health insurance premiums.

Read Sen. Obama’s answers to SpineUniverse’s other questions:

• What about the uninsured and underinsured?
• How are you going to help kids?
• How will investing in technology improve health care?
• What are 3 key points you want voters to know about your health care plan?

SpineUniverse does not endorse any particular candidate or party. This health care content is for informational purposes only.