Business is fond of reminding elected officials that it must have predictability in the rules under which commerce operates.
With a swipe of the pen — 22 pens actually — President Obama has given clarity to the oft-delayed and divisive topic of health care reform. Sure, there are still some tweaks coming in the weeks ahead. But as a nation, we’ve set a course. It’s time to get past the overheated rhetoric and the partisan infighting. Now it’s time for business to roll up our collective sleeves and make this thing work.
There are some items in the plan that are clearly wins for business. Business owners recognize that employees need and deserve health care. It’s a retention issue; it’s a health and wellness issue; it’s simply good business to invest in our employees’ good health. The question has always been cost. Now the feds are providing some help in the form of tax credits for small business.
The concept of state-specific small business pools for buying health insurance, however, is still a work in progress. As Becky Bergman’s front-page story points out, even benefits experts aren’t quite sure how that will shake out. The concept of spreading the risk by pooling should level the playing field, as Kevin Galvin, a Hartford business owner and organizer of Small Business for Health Reform, points out. And that can only be seen as a plus.
The heavy excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” plans and the additional Medicare levy on unearned income will hurt some at the higher end of the scale.
And the relative silence coming from the major insurance companies is at best unsettling. Certainly they do need time to study the fine print and calculate all the potential impacts. But if the sky were really falling, we’d expect they’d have sounded the alarm by now. The tradeoff of adding millions of new policies versus taking in many who are known to be ill is a tricky calculation. We’re confident Hartford’s signature industry is up to the task of finding a way to make it work — and make a profit.
We’re about to embark on a journey in uncharted waters. But at least now we know we’re going. How we get there — and what bumps we sustain along the route — are now largely in our own hands.
Let’s embrace the opportunity.
Happy Anniversary
It was just 10 years ago that Capital Workforce Partners opened a new concept in job training for the construction trades — the Job Funnel.
Every Friday, Hartford area residents who are looking to improve their career prospects can embark on the journey toward becoming a bricklayer or carpenter, electrician or roofer, sheet metal worker or operating engineer. The price of admission is low: Residents of Greater Hartford must be over 18, able to read/write English, be physically fit enough to do the work, have reliable transportation and be drug-free.
The Job Funnel offers a coordinated system of assessment, pre-employment preparation, job training, placement and retention services. It is a doorway to a well-paid career.
The program celebrates its 10th anniversary March 29 with a gala at the Hilton in downtown Hartford. Hilda Solis, the U.S. secretary of labor, will be the featured speaker. But the real stars of the evening will be the graduates of the program.
Congratulations one and all.
