The current insurance system we have is terrible for small business. It does nothing to encourage entrepreneurship, which is the very foundation of our economy. Currently if you have a micro business or a home based business the only type of insurance you can apply for is Individual Insurance through the few major insurance companies that we have. The cost may be prohibitive. A recent quote to a husband and wife, not even including the kids, in their 40's was $1895 a month. This insurance required a 270 day wait on any pre existing illnesses which were undefined. It had a 30 dollar co-pay, a 500 dollar deductible before it started paying anything, and no drug coverage. What a great deal! If you're slightly overweight, underweight, smoke, or have certain pre existing illnesses or past illnesses you cannot get the above great deal on individual insurance in our state. So, likely you're just simply out of luck. So what happens to the entrepreneur who really wants to have a small home based business or a micro business with less than 25 employee? Well, a lot of them don't start their business. They keep a job which they do not enjoy or like just for the insurance benefits. Or they just do with out and hope for the best. In 1992 and 1993 Bill Clinton warned of the economic crises to come if we did not enact some sort of health care reform. He warned that we would lose our manufacturing base, our entrepreneurs and jobs would go elsewhere. Looks like that has happened. In the Home Based circle there are a lot of Canadians who have thriving home based businesses due to the fact that they do not have to concern themselves with the high cost of insurance or the high cost of health care. In a country like the USA we can do better than Canada. We can and should have the best healthcare in the world. We currently spend more than anyone else, yet we get less for our dollar. No matter how you look at it Health Care Reform is good for small and home based businesses who are being strangled by the high cost of insurance. While I don't totally agree with everything in HR3200 (I support HR676) the truth is we have to do something. Insurance companies have proved to be very unreliable advocates of the patient therefore the government needs to step in and regulate the industry or do away with it entirely.
Home based businesses will thrive with health care reform
For more info: http://www.citizensforpatientsrights.org
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Comments
Dear Stephanie-
While I concur that the self-employed and home-based businesses need health reform now, I will disagree with your perspective that this important segment of our economy will get all that they need in the current reform proposals. There is an important item for the self-employed glaringly absent from all of the reform bills currently being put forth by Congress: a fix for the deductibility of health insurance. Sole proprietors, unlike all other business entities, are unable to deduct premiums as a business expense.Since they do not receive this deduction, they are required to pay significantly more in self-employment tax, their payroll taxes. In your example mentioned in the article, a home-based business owner paying $1,895 per month for family health coverage ($22,740 per year) must also pay $3,479.22 in additional self-employment taxes because of this inequality in the tax code, a substantial sum for the smallest of businesses. More info: www.NASE.org
I never said that our segment of our economy will get ALL that they need in the current reform proposals in fact I stated the opposite. I even stated within my article that it is not perfect, but it is better than what we have now. I am actually for only HR676 or another Single Payer ONLY plan.
Also, please read on www . taxalmanac . org about deducting health insurance as self employed individual and from the IRS site:
www . irs . gov/publications/p535/ch06.html#en_US_publink1000144786
Thank you so much for your comments.
Stephanie
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