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Small businesses will be bellwether for Landrieu
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., a key vote on efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system, said her decision will be largely based on whether small businesses and their employees get access to affordable coverage.
She called a package recently adopted by the Senate Finance Committee a "step in the right direction," although she added "we have more work to do."
--- Tax increases feared ---
At a hearing Tuesday by Landrieu's Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, members of the Obama administration said the Finance Committee's proposal to establish insurance exchanges would give small businesses the bargaining power they need to get affordable coverage.
But Amanda Austin, representing the National Federation of Independent Business, said her members fear a federal health package will come with large tax increases.
Landrieu said the impact of health care proposals on small business is the key issue for her because small businesses employ more than half of America's workers, and their health premiums have increased on average by 74 percent since 2001 -- four times faster than inflation.
In Louisiana, only 36 percent of small businesses owners surveyed said they provide their employees with insurance, according to the Small Business Majority, a group that generally supports health care overhaul legislation. Most nonproviders cited cost as the major factor.
Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills said the insurance exchanges, in which small businesses would pull together to purchase insurance, could be the tool they need to lower premiums, now about 18 percent higher than those paid by larger companies.
"This has left small business owners in an untenable situation, having to choose between their employees, who are often like family to them, and the bottom line," Mills said.
--- Tax credits favored ---
Landrieu supports the idea of tax credits included in the Finance Committee bill to help small businesses buy insurance for employees....
