Top small-business concern: health care
10/27/09 | 10 comments

Top small-business concern: health care


Owners forum wants affordable, quality reform
By Nok-Noi Ricker
BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine — Small-business owners from the region gathered Saturday to discuss how rising insurance costs are hurting their businesses and to learn how proposed national health care programs would affect them.

“We want to draw a spotlight to small businesses in Maine,” said Phil Bailey, organizer of the event.

The No. 1 concern for Maine’s small-business owners is health care costs and how to provide coverage for all employees, he said. They also want to maintain high-quality benefits for those covered under any new plan approved by those in Washington, he added.

At the forum’s round table were state Rep. Adam Goode, D-Bangor, a member of the Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee; John Corrigan, Bucksport Regional Health Center’s executive director; and Ben Wootten, the Maine Small Business Forum’s president.

Goode started out the presentation by providing a detailed outline of the three major plans under consideration by Congress, one in the House and two in the Senate.

“Affordability is a major concern,” he said.

The final product, which in all likelihood will be a combination of the bills under consideration, he said, “could look like one of these bills or could look like none of these bills.”

Time is short, Bailey said, because Congress is expected to vote on a national health care bill around Thanksgiving.

Corrigan also said affordability is a huge issue. The Bucksport Regional Health Center has grown from eight employees in 1983 to 47 today and has been hit hard by employee insurance costs, he said.

Over the years, “we’ve moved from 100 percent coverage to 75 percent [coverage], which is equivalent to $4 an hour. It’s costing us,” he said. “Who would have thought it would get to this?”

Corrigan said his small business is not unlike others in Maine or the nation.

“A public health option that has the will of the people” is needed, he said. “If we don’t have it today, you’re going to have to live with what we’ve always had.”

Wootten, who also agrees a public health option is needed, said any new health care legislation has to be affordable for “both the employer and employee.”

A survey of 200 Maine small-business owners, conducted in May 2009, found that 58 percent do not have health insurance because they can’t afford it. Of the 42 percent who are providing health insurance for their employees, 81 percent say they’re having a hard time doing so.

The 24 small-business owners at the Bangor forum voiced concerns about high health care insurance costs and some told stories about not being able to afford insurance for themselves and their employees.

Forum attendees were asked to sign a letter asking U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to strive for “real health care reform.”

“To make affordable health coverage a reality, Congress must set reasonable limits on out-of-pocket expenses and provide sufficient tax credits for individuals and small business,” the Maine Small Business Forum letter states.

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Comments
10 comments on this item
On 10/27/09 at 6:20 AM, charlottepogue wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

You can get instant medical insurance at the lowest price from http://bit.ly/39pFJx

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On 10/27/09 at 6:21 AM, freedomfighter wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Aren't these small businesses listening to the Chamber of Commerce? The Chamber doesn't think providing health care for their workers is a significant burden. Small businesses in other countries don't have to concern themselves with health care costs at all. Best of luck to any American companies trying to compete globally.

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On 10/27/09 at 6:25 AM, downbeat wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

As a small business owner, I need to let these folks know they are not represented in Washington or by any goverment entity. Dream on if you think they will lower health care costs.. i have seen nothing in the bill to do that but it seems to me more of goverment trying to promise way more than they can deliver. Social Security is on track to fail, medicare is broke and the list goes on...

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On 10/27/09 at 9:24 AM, mainelion wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

But, but, but....I thought Dirigo solved all this. Baldacci told me it would...

1) Insure ALL of the uninsured in Maine by 2009

2) LOWER the cost of insurance for everyone.

3) Be self supporting and NEVER cost taxpayers a single dime.

the results...

1) WRONG

2) WRONG

3) WRONG

Baldacci is 3 for 3. The worst governor in Maine history.

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On 10/27/09 at 9:30 AM, MayorMcheesy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Yall like to b!tch about the problem but i haven't seen a single alternative solution posted about it...at least someone is trying to solve the problem

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On 10/27/09 at 10:17 AM, downbeat wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I am an independent but the republicans have some good options andthe media is not covering it...stop watching the traditional media sources and get the information from the apprpriate web sites..

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On 10/27/09 at 12:03 PM, JWBooth wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

A contrived event for the media. Few, if any, REAL small businesses have the time to squander on Phil Bailey and his Bolsheviks in the middle of a day.

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On 10/27/09 at 2:31 PM, vichet wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

JW you are correct. This is a contrived event. The small business whose names go un-mentioned in the article do not travel in the same small business circles I do. Many small business know where the problem lies. right at the hands of inexperienced politicians in Augusta and Washington. Its true the cost of insurance has sky-rocketed in the last decade or so. (since mr Goode was in middle schoool). The policies of Augusta in that time period has made Maine the second highest cost for health insurance in the country. The BDN has done a disservice to the business community by buying into Mr Goodes' self-serving political agenda.

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On 10/29/09 at 12:51 AM, bangorbohemian wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

First the "Chamber" has lost many members, including some very large ones like google, and they certainly do not represent me.

Second JWBooth is short on facts,(no surprise) as there were REAL business owners there, and it was NOT in the middle of the day, it was at 8:am on a saturday. We took time on a saturday morning to discuss the Health Care and the needs of our employes, everyday Maine people. What have you done, other than spew non fact based comments?

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On 10/30/09 at 6:59 AM, yowsayowsa1 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

We don't need health insurance reform.

We don't need a public option.

What we need is affordable HEALTH CARE. The only way to do that is tear down this whole convoluted mess and start from scratch with a one payer system.

Some will argue that the government will only make it a bigger mess. I for one can't imagine a bigger mess unless they pass this bull$@#t plan that they are pushing.

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