Mass. Business balking at health changes

The Boston Globe reports:

Governor Deval Patrick's proposal to ask businesses, insurers, and hospitals to kick in about $100 million to close a gap in funding for the state's landmark health insurance law is threatening to fracture the fragile coalition whose support was instrumental in passing the measure.

Business and insurance industry leaders are opposed to Patrick's plan, saying it is unfair to ask them to pay more, especially during an economic downturn. But consumer groups praised the proposal, saying patients were asked to pay more when copayments and deductibles for subsidized health plans were increased earlier this year. Now, they say, it is time for others to step up and pay their share.

Meanwhile, a new poll indicated there is broad public support for asking businesses and insurers to pay more to keep afloat the state's health insurance law, which seeks to cover almost all residents.

But a lobbyist with the state's largest business group said Patrick's proposal is likely to undermine key support for the two-year-old law, which passed only after more than a year of sensitive negotiations and compromises involving hospitals, insurers, employers, and con sumer groups.

"It was a real delicate balance that was achieved two years ago to bring everybody on board," said Rick Lord, president and chief executive of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, an association of business groups with 7,000 members.

"This jeopardizes the support of the business community, and that's one of the reasons reform has been so successful so far," he said. "Any reform that has been tried anywhere else - when the business community opposed it, reform has not been successful."

The law requires most employers to offer health coverage or to pay an annual penalty of $295 per worker. But a crucial compromise was struck to win the business community's support: companies would be in compliance even if a minority of their workers were covered. Employers with more than 10 workers had the option of paying at least 33 percent of workers' premiums within their first 90 days of employment or having at least 25 percent of their workers covered by an employer plan.

The struggles of central planning.