Commentary

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   HAVE YOUR SAY Feel strongly about something? Share it with the community by writing a letter to the editor. You’ll need to include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) We reserve the right to edit letters, but if you keep yours to 250 words or less, we won’t ask you to shorten it. If your letter is published, please wait 30 days before submitting another. Send it to: E-mail: letters@heraldnet.com Mail: Letters section The Herald P.O. Box 930 Everett, WA 98206 Fax: 425-339-3458 Have a question about letters? Contact Carol MacPherson (cmacpherson@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3472).   Published: Sunday, June 21, 2009 GUEST COMMENTARY / HEALTH CARE REFORM Small businesses need leverage of public option By Rosario Reyes, Alan Geiger and Laura Hartman Though our businesses are quite different, we share the same struggle over lack of affordable health insurance. Rosario owns Las Americas Business Center, Inc., a Lynnwood financial counseling center. Alan and Laura own Metric Motors, Ltd., a Snohomish auto repair shop. We work hard, serve our communities and pay our taxes. But, like small business owners across the nation, we have no bargaining power with big insurance companies and the cost of health care is killing us. That is why we urgently need Congress to enact real health reform that includes the choice of a quality, affordable public health insurance plan. In the private insurance market, small businesses like ours pay 25 percent or more of every premium dollar just for administrative costs. This is far higher than the 10 percent figure large businesses bear. Those of us in the small group market simply don't have the size to effectively spread risk, thus we get penalized in our premiums. We constantly face difficult trade-offs. At Las Americas Business Center, Inc., Rosario and her small staff serve more than 125 micro business clients, and the vast majority simply cannot afford to offer any health benefits to their workers. One of the exceptions, a painting company with 10 employees, did offer full coverage but had to drop it once the economic downturn hit. Las Americas itself would like to provide health insurance to its staff but cannot because of cost. At Metric Motors in Snohomish, the lack of options for small businesses forced Alan and Laura into $11,000 a year in deductibles to keep our premiums below $800/month for a family of three. Even more odious was the refusal of our insurance company to fulfill its contractual promise to pay for necessary treatment. Giving small businesses the choice of a public health insurance plan, as President Obama proposes, would finally give us some real bargaining power. Those fortunate enough to have private insurance they like will be able to keep it. But for the rest of us, it is critical to have the choice of a public health insurance plan: It would encourage competition among private insurers and put downward pressure on costs. According to research from the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, health reform that includes a public plan would save employers $231 billion over 2010-2020, and $3 trillion for the nation. Without the public plan to promote competition and control costs, we lose three-quarters of those savings. To reap these savings, we must rein in the excess profits of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. And that is precisely why both of these powerful big business groups fiercely oppose true health reform. For instance, their well-heeled lobbyists are now brokering the notion of regional "cooperatives" as an alternative to a true public plan. But as economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recently blogged, "cooperatives won't have any real bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small and too numerous. Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them." In addition to pumping millions of our precious premium dollars into lobbying and campaign contributions, the insurance industry is broadcasting high-priced, misleading TV ads attacking President Obama's reform proposal as "socialized medicine." But in reality, private insurance companies themselves have a terrible track record of gouging consumers with high prices, inadequate coverage, pre-existing condition exclusions, and fine print that get in the way of the decisions we make with our doctors. It makes no sense to leave health reform solely in the hands of insurance companies. So, to those grumbling that private insurers won't be able to compete with a public plan, we say this: If private insurers are really as wonderful and efficient as they claim to be, they'll be able to compete. In the meantime, we need health reform to keep the private sector honest. We demand real solutions, not political fighting. Here on Main Street America, we're willing to pay our fair share for health care. But we can't do it alone. We are confident that once Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray consider the impact of the various options, they will lead the way in Congress to enact meaningful health reform that includes the choice of a quality, affordable public health insurance plan. Rosario Reyes owns Las Americas Business Center, Inc., in Lynnwood. Alan Geiger and Laura Hartman own Metric Motors, Ltd., in Snohomish. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. 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