Small Business, Group Health Insurance, and The Candidates

This just in on the Presidential Health Care Campaign '08: there is one group that is hit really hard when it comes to health insurance and health care costs rising. That group is small businesses. In this day and age, if a small business can afford health insurance for their employees, it is just shy of miraculous.

Come November 4, who will the small business owner be voting for? This is where your candidates stand, so far. Arizona Senator John McCain, official Republican nominee, is wanting to move away from the employer-based system. This would involve offering tax credits to individuals choosing to purchase health insurance on their own. This would give employees more options, like purchasing plans across state lines, thus helping small businesses.

The democratic nominee, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, would like to see to it that all eployers are required to contribute something for their workers' health insurance. Obama would like all companies to 1) offer employees coverage or 2) help pay for their worker's individual plans. Small businesses would be exempt under Obama's plan. To Obama's demise, this is not so convincing to small business owners, as he hasn't yet specified who will qualify as a small business owner. A lobbyist for independent business has been quoted as saying, "We'd like to see more specificity on almost everything. A lack of specificity breeds worries."

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Jason Furman, Obama's economic policy director, says: "We would work with the Treasury to design the appropriate threshold for defining a small business." Obama does indeed have some specifics for small businesses on the topic of health insurance. He says he will offer small business employers a 50% tax refund, provided they provide health insurance coverage for their workers. Says Obama,"I'm announcing my plan to provide real relief for small business owners crushed by rising costs, an idea championed by my friend Hillary Clinton, who's been leading the way in our battle to insure every American."

The Wall Street Journal article said McCain has the edge with small business health insurance, but we're not too sure