Burlington, Vermont - April 27, 2011
Ron Mayer owns Small Dog Electronics. When it comes to running a business, one of the biggest costs is insurance for his employees.
"It's an enormous burden if I compare that to 30 years ago or 35 years ago when I was first starting a business in Vermont," Mayer said.
At that time he paid about $1,500 a year in health insurance for an employee and their family. Mayer covered 100 percent of the cost as a benefit for his workers.
"Today it's over $15,000 for that same employee and their family for coverage that is not even as good as it was back 35 years ago," he said.
That is why Mayer is a big supporter of a single-payer health care system.
"I think having control or input into health care costs in our state gives businesses control over one of the most uncontrollable elements of their overhead currently," he said.
But just how to control those costs is at the heart of a single-payer bill lawmakers are considering.
"It is a challenge, I will admit," said Anya Rader Wallack, the governor's special assistant for health care.
Rader Wallack says if approved by lawmakers the bill will set into motion the mechanisms for moving toward a single-payer system in Vermont. The first step will be picking five members for the Green Mountain Care Board.
"What the board is charged with developing those new payment methodologies, containing overall costs by reviewing heath insurance rate increases for example, and rates paid to heath care providers. That starts immediately and continues into the future," Rader Wallack said.
In 2014, the bill implements the health insurance exchange to reorganize the market into one large shopping place for insurance, for people to compare what is in the market and get ratings for those products. The big wild card in all of this is how to pay for the new system. Rader Wallack admits that won't be known for years.
"So we need to find out what the benefits will be, what is the underlying cost of care we will provide through single-payer, how much federal money will be available to pay for care because what we are doing under the plan is pooling state, federal and private dollars and we won't know how much federal money will be available until they calculate how much federal tax credits will be available in 2014," she said.
But the uncertainty of cost and the lack of other concrete details is why some businesses are reluctant to throw their support behind the bill.
"We would be much more optimistic and again, the only way it will have credibility in a way you will get business, the monolith to support it is if there is a business owner, business person who sits on that five-member panel," said Tom Torti of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce.
When thinking about how the single-payer system affects businesses don't forget about Main Street in your town. Cities and towns in Vermont are businesses, too.
Dave Sichel of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns says his organization and members support the idea of moving to a universal care system funded by broad based taxes.
"We do have some concerns about the specifics in the bill being considered, both in the process of getting from here to there and some aspects of that bill once the specifics are in place," Sichel said.
And he says the League, like the Chamber, wants a say on how the health care reform is crafted.
"We are more than willing to engage with the administration and the Legislature to honestly look at all the numbers and say can it work? If it can, hallelujah, we really will be a place where businesses want to locate. If it can't, we will have at least gone down in defeat trying as opposed to just whining about how bad it is. We do a lot of that," Torti said.
Torti also says his organization feels it is critical not to deconstruct our current health insurance system while moving forward in case a suitable single-payer system proves impossible to craft.
Lawmakers are now working out differences between the House and Senate versions of the health reform bill, and then it goes to the governor for his signature.
Judy Simpson - WCAX News
