Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
NFIB works for changes in health care law
Group with 600 members in Chester County says small businesses are in need of an alternative to Obamacare
The National Federation of Independent Business says small businesses need an alternative to the ACA.
“Nationally, we’re waiting with bated breath for details of the new health care plan.” – David Moser, chief executive officer of DFT Inc.
UWCHLAN >> More than most constituencies, small business is anxiously waiting to find out what the nation’s next health care policy will be.
That was the assessment of David Moser, chief executive officer of DFT Inc., a maker of large industrial valves, at a meeting of the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB. The national organization held its semiannual meeting for Chester County members Friday at DFT’s Sheree Boulevard headquarters and factory where 65 people work.
“Nationally, we’re waiting with bated breath for details of the new health care plan,” said Moser, an NFIB member. While terming Obamacare “a disaster,” Moser cautioned that national health care policy “is a very complex issue.”
Lawmakers in Washington were wrestling with the issue last week, with conservative and moderate Republicans reportedly disagreeing on what a new law should include and omit. Repealing and replacing the health care law was a campaign pledge of President Donald Trump and Republicans running for House and Senate seats. The GOP now controls both the House and Senate as well as the presidency.
“There has probably been unrealistic expectations of how fast it can be done,” Moser said.
Small businesses and the NFIB have been among the biggest critics of Obamacare, saying its costs are killing jobs
and economic growth; supporters say it has provided health care insurance to millions who didn’t have it before.
Kevin L. Shivers, NFIB’s executive state director, said the organization with 14,000 members in Pennsylvania, including 600 in Chester County, has heard plenty of horror stories from members about Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act.
Going into the November presidential election, small businesses were seeing premium increases of 40-to-50 percent, he said. One small businesswoman in the county said her increase of $26,000 would put her out of business, Shivers said.
“Everybody we talked to had a major issue” with the Affordable Care Act, the NFIB representative said.
The law had “three major broken promises,” according to Shivers: Not everyone could keep their doctors; it became unaffordable; and it did not allow small businesses to compete for workers with larger firms on health care costs.
“For 40 years this has been an issue, and (the ACA) did nothing to fix it,” said Shivers. “It became a race to the bottom. The law has become a real burden (for small businesses). We really heard about it in Chester County.”
Now, the NFIB would like a pro-business Congress to prioritize affordability, flexibility and predictability in the healthcare plan they pass.
David E. Edman, managing partner at VBID Health in Wayne, which works with companies on “value based insurance designs,” said a third of the $3 trillion spent on health care each year in the U.S. is wasted.
“I was not a supporter of Obamacare because it did not address the problem of cost,” said Edman, who also attended the NFIB meeting. “It was just pouring in good money after bad. It drastically increased the number of people insured in a broken system.”
To fix the system, Edman said, “the consumer must have skin in the game.”
The NFIB held a similar meeting for members in Delaware County on Thursday.
On the state level, most of the concerns expressed had to do with the state’s huge public pension liability. Lawmakers in attendance said that issue is being addressed but that actions being taken now will not be felt for some 15 years. Until then, Pennsylvania’s budget will continue to be adversely affected the issue, they said.