What are Obama and McCain's plans for health care in regards to small business?

Question

My dad owns a small business and says that Obama wants to mandate all business to provide health care to their employees. He said this would put him out of business. I looked it up and it looks like small businesses are exempt. Can anyone confirm this? And what about McCain's view on this?

Answer 1

Obama's plan is to give tax breaks to small business that pay for health care.  My understanding about McCain is to cut or do away with tax breaks to all business and give then to the people.

One thing with McCain's plan is that most businesses will cut health care for their employee's.  At least that's what Wall Street says.

Answer 2

McCain viewers need to start thinking about building and opening nursing homes because if you notice most of his supporters are elderly and the nursing homes will start coming in handy very soon.

Answer 3

1)  Obama:  I am looking at his pamphlet "Blue Print for Change" and see that he will offer insurance to people.  In terms of the exemption, that will depend on the number of people working for your Dad.  It will be like the FMLA & the ADA.  It seems that Obama will tax the payroll of an employer that does not take enough out for Employee health insurance.  This will probably be companies with 10 people or more.  

2)  McCain: Wants to put more competition into the health insurance industry by making this insurance portable across state lines.  Also, a person can keep his/her health insurance policy even though he/she is not employed during disabilities or child rearing.  Wants to offer a tax credit of $2,500 for individuals & $5,000 for families for health insurance.  And, if you spend $1,500/yr on health insurance, you can put the remaining $1,000 that year into your HSA account.  I do like the HSA accounts because you can take that account with you and you have control how much you spend on health care.  You can even use that money for OTC drugs, etc.

What I would LOVE to see but neither candidate offers...

1)  Pricing lists for hospitals.  You never get to see this AND they have contracts with health insurance companies.  What are the contracts they have?  This should be public and you would fall off your chair if you saw these contracts.  I feel bad for people without health insurance because THEY are paying the deficit from people utilizing the hospital with a health insurance policy.

2)  You should see the amount of money paid on a claim submitted from your doctor.  These doctors are working for 1986 prices when it comes to health insurance.  They will charge in the insurance co $1,000 for services and receive $450.  I would like to see these contracts and price lists for doctors too.  That would be very enlightening.

I think that offering health insurance policies or plans via the government will not fix the health care issues within this country.  ONLY transparency and accountability will fix the problems.  I think there is something really dark within this industry AND we need someone to be a true MAVERICK and ask for the entire truth without being scared.

Just think...how many hospitals have profitable institutions?  And, how many health insurance companies are profitable?  You would be shocked to find the answer to this...

And, for people that don't have health insurance...why do they get something separate from the elderly?  Why can't Medicare be offered to the under 65 crowd?  They can pay premiums into that.  It might actually save Medicare period....

Also, I think that the IRS should change the medical deduction from a Schedule A, Itemized Deduction, to an Above the Line Deduction without a floor.  There are too many people in this country that have $1K's invested in medical care and cannot utilize this deduction because they do not own a home or pay real estate taxes, therefore; are only qualified to take a standard deduction.  That is not fair and only helps the wealthy.  Why hasn't Obama offered this?  Isn't he pro-poor?  If so, I would think he would fix this FIRST!  

Answer 4

Obama's plan is to bankrupt the entire country by trying to pay for his ridiculous health care program.

McCain's plan is to fine tune the plan we currently have as it is the best plan in the world.

Answer 5

Small businesses are exempt.

From his site:

Employer Contribution: Employers that do not offer or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. Small businesses will be exempt from this requirement, and will receive a new Small Business Health Tax Credit that helps reduce health care costs for small businesses.

Support for Small Businesses: Barack Obama will create a Small Business Health Tax Credit to provide small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees. This new credit will provide a strong incentive to small businesses to offer high quality health care to their workers and help improve the competitiveness of America’s small businesses.

McCain will tax everyone's healthcare benefits.

Answer 6

There is no question, Health Care has to be addressed and as a country who always tells the rest of the world that we are the best, we should get in step with other developed countries. Are the systems perfect elsewhere ? No, definitely not but at least they have a system.

And will small businesses need help? Yes and we need to make sure that they get it and not just the big boys.

If we can find the 40 Million a day to be spend in Irak, we can find the monies for Health Care for all and not just for our Politicians.