Posted on 03/17/2006 5:29:54 PM PST by Libloather
Bill Would Make Every Md. Business Offer Health Care
Mar 16th - 9:01am
By NICHOLAS SOHR
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Conjuring up images of the fierce, partisan fight over the Wal-Mart bill that raged in the opening days of this year's General Assembly session, a Prince George's County lawmaker has introduced legislation that would require every business in the state to provide employee health care.
The bill, sponsored by Delegate James W. Hubbard, D-Prince George's, would force businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees to put at least 4.5 percent of their payrolls toward health benefits for their workers, or pay the difference into the state's Medicaid fund.
"The bottom line is to provide the people of the working families in Maryland with healthcare," Hubbard said. "It's cheaper to provide healthcare this way than to use emergency rooms as the primary care providers."
Lawmakers passed the so-called Wal-Mart bill into law Jan. 12 by overriding Gov. Bob Ehrlich's May 2005 veto. It forces corporations with more than 10,000 workers in Maryland to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health benefits.
For House minority whip Anthony J. O'Donnell, R-Southern Maryland, Hubbard's legislation was no surprise following the passage of the Wal-Mart bill.
"Obviously, we said that the only way (the Wal-Mart bill) makes sense for the proponents is to start at a high number and ratchet their way down," he said. "They said they weren't going to do that, but here it is."
Other opponents of Hubbard's bill, including Ehrlich, have taken to calling it the "son of Wal-Mart" bill.
"We knew it was just a matter of time before the General Assembly would attempt to mandate that all employers, including small businesses, provide health benefits," Ehrlich said in a written statement. "Government should not be in the 'business' of micromanaging an employer's payroll."
Ehrlich was scheduled to hold a news conference Wednesday to address the bill, but aides said he was unable to attend because he was held up and a Board of Public Works meeting.
Aris Melissaratos, secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development, spoke in Ehrlich's place at Daily Discoveries, a childcare center in Gambrills.
"We in Maryland, folks, are in position to have the best healthcare system, but you don't do that through legislation," he said. "It's creates and unnecessary hurdle for economic developers."
Amy Weaver, president and director of the Daily Discoveries, said that her business, which already provides healthcare to its 40 employees, would be forced to pay an additional $16,000 per year under Hubbard's bill.
"Imposing another payroll tax would be devastating," she said. "I'm not willing to pay my employees less. Childcare is already an underpaid industry."
The bill includes $15 million for matching grants to help ease the burden on businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
Lawmakers and interests on both sides of the bill have conflicting views on the bill's chances of passage during this session.
During the bitter fight to override Ehrlich's veto of the Wal-Mart bill, the Assembly's majority Democrats joined with organized labor and liberal interests groups to hand the governor a stinging defeat. Wednesday, however, it appeared unlikely that coalition would come together with enough force to propel Hubbard's bill forward.
House majority leader, Delegate Kumar P. Barve, D-Montgomery, who was a vocal supporter of the Wal-Mart bill and the veto override, said he won't support the new legislation.
"I just don't think we should be doing that," he said. "We should wait to see how the Wal-Mart bill works."
Fred D. Mason, Jr., president of the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, said he was optimistic that lawmakers would take a good look at the bill because of rising gas, heating and electricity prices.
"If you add not having healthcare on top of that, it's absolutely crazy," he said. "There has to be a rational approach to solving this dilemma."
But, Mason admitted that this bill will not garner the attention or lobbying resources that the Wal-Mart bill did.
O'Donnell, the minority whip, an ardent opponent of both bills, said that Hubbard's chances did not look good.
"The only reason this won't go anywhere is because it's an election year," he said. "But, I can tell you it will be back. The liberals will bring it back when they don't have to face the voters."
Hubbard's bill would also relax requirements for the state's Medicaid program, allowing families with income that is less than twice the poverty level to apply for aid. Currently, the threshold varies between 32 percent and 39 percent of the federal poverty level.
To fund the mandates, Hubbard included a tobacco tax increase of $1 per pack.
Hubbard said that he began introducing similar versions of the bill, beginning in 2003. Pieces have been plucked out since then and passed as stand-alone bills, including the Wal-Mart bill and a similar tobacco tax increase sponsored by Delegate Sheila E. Hixson, D-Montgomery.
Press Release Source: Employment Policies Institute
Thursday March 16, 1:55 pm ET
WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- In a special hearing being held today, Maryland lawmakers will consider a proposal to mandate employer- provided healthcare that, if approved, will put many of the state's least- skilled out of work and still fail to reach a large portion of the uninsured.
The proposal broadens January's large-employer healthcare mandate to cover the remaining businesses in the state, an action that would threaten the welfare of small businesses and low-skilled employees and ignore a large subsection of the uninsured.
Research from economists at Dartmouth University and the University of Michigan found that healthcare mandates increase labor costs for employers, which they must pass on either to customers in the form of higher prices, or to employees through reduced hours, lowered wages, or other cutbacks in benefits.
The economists also found that those who work close enough to the minimum wage that their wages cannot be fully adjusted downward will face a significant threat of job loss as a result of a mandate. Their research revealed that the least-educated, minorities, single parents, and women face the highest risk of job loss under an employer mandate.
Not only are healthcare mandates poor policy that will jeopardize the income of many low-skilled employees, but over 40 percent of the uninsured adults in Maryland are not employed and therefore would not be covered by this mandate.
"Employer-provided healthcare mandates hurt the very people they are intended to help," said Mike Flynn, Director of Legislative Affairs for the Employment Policies Institute. "Attempting to remedy today's healthcare problem through the employer will lead to job loss for the least-skilled and still leave a large number of the uninsured without coverage."
For more information visit http://www.EPIonline.org
The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding entry-level employment.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060316/dcth060.html?.v=34
"Bill Would Make Every Maryland Business Leave the State of Maryland" should be the title.
As a business owner, my solution would be simple.
"Well fellas, the state has required me to offer you health care, so I'm cutting your salaries by the same amount as my premiums. Got a problem with that? Stop voting Democrat."
The relationship between the employer and the employee is one based on mutual agreement. The terms are known before the hiring is done. One either accepts them or not. You can either "afford" to work at Wal-Mart or you cannot. Socialists in the legislature are going to drive business away. Wal-mart can easily ride this out and apparently has made a business decision to stay. Others will not. They will leave and deposit their employees on the doorstep of the welfare system, right where the government wants them.
That didn't take long.
Amazing, yet no mention of the leech lawyers, the John Edwards, who drive up the costs of healthcare everyday. Maybe some Democrats should try to see what it`s like to pay quarter million dollar premiums for insurance every year after going to school for 10 years, oh but that`s right, a few well placed fundraisers and we can forget all about that.
Once the evil capitalist system is eradicated, the working class will experience the euphoria of the Schindler health care system!
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
PA drove industry out of the state with hight taxes. That's why Steeler fans are now spread out all over the country.
Nope, sure didn't! IIRC, this guy is a bigtime Greenie.
That's exactly what Nazis did: rather than nationalizing all industry like the Soviets, they simply controlled them in almost equal measure, formally leaving the ownership in the hands of private citizens.
So is in Maryland: you can own whatever you want, but we the (not yet National) Socialists will tell you what to do.
And, why stop at health care? Demand that business provide food for the workers. And shelter. And entertainment. And education for the children. Never mind whence it comes .
The "Living Wage" comes to mind.
And, even allowing the fantasy that these companies could actually afford to do this, they wouldn't be able to do it for long anyway.
What happens to the cost of any commodity once the government requires purchase of it? Yep, the cost cost goes up and up.
If my customers were required by law to buy my products, you think I'd worry about keeping my products competitive and affordable? Only if you're a liberal.
The real irony here is that the people that these socialists [claim to] want to help will be the primary losers. And the even bigger irony is that when these same people get screwed by this, they'll vote for the same libs who will then promise to take care of them.
I'm glad I've got less than 10 years left in this state! Of course, by the time I leave it will probably be all 'publican and FL will be all dims. ...Maybe Wyoming...
A couple of salient points:
1) Businesses do not actually pay these costs- their customers do-- the costs always get passed along to those actually forking over money- the customer.
2) Worse, when increased costs of doing business are mandated ( forced ) on a company, they look to cut expenses- and guess what? Payroll is one of the biggest costs, so they will start culling the less-productive workers. Those "benefits" don't mean a lot if you lose your job.
Idiots.
See tagline...
"Maybe Wyoming..."
Wyoming is looking darn good these days, I must say.
Your dad nust have known my father.
I have already left. The slope is now at 50 degrees. Don't worry, Marylander's, you will get your fair share from the government.
This is how socialized medicine comes to the US. It will come, not because the average citizen demands it, but because the corporations will demand it.
If he was anything like mine, he must have been a good guy. Mine never steered me wrong.
One more of his?
"A woman should never, ever trust a man who's scared of getting his hands dirty..."
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