By : Eliot Kleinberg
Source : http://www.palmbeachpost.com
Category : Small Business Grant
A federal official lobbied local businesses for the Affordable Care Act on Thursday.
Sol Ross, business outreach director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, met with about a dozen people, small business owners and members of the Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce.
"Health care is jobs," Ross told the gathering, which included managers from senior centers and senior help agencies.
He both detailed and made the case for the act, touted by supporters as a sea change in health care but facing virulent opposition, including from small business owners who've said the costs of what cynics dubbed "Obamacare" will severely hamper or even kill their operations.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear a legal challenge next year from 26 states, led by Florida.
On Thursday in Boynton Beach, Ross argued the act would create jobs, improve health care, save money, protect Medicare and seniors from fraud and help small businesses find and compare plans.
"I might be too frank," Glenn Jorgensen, president of the 600-member chamber, told Ross. "The small businesses struggle to get health care for their employees."
Small businesses get a tax credit for providing health insurance to employees right now, and in 2014 they will be on the same negotiating footing as large group employers when they can purchase insurance for employees on health exchanges.
Small businesses now pay rates significantly higher than large group employers because they lack the negotiating power of large companies.
Also on hand Thursday: Craig Borkon of Know Your Care, a nonprofit that lobbies for the act.
The Boynton Beach meeting was Ross' seventh of eight in Florida cities.
"We're in the heart, really, of a medical area," Jorgensen told Ross, citing the various hospitals and medical centers nearby.
Staff writer Stacey Singer contributed to this story.
Source : http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/federal-official-pushes-health-care-plan-in-boynton-2034865.html
Source : http://www.palmbeachpost.com
Category : Small Business Grant
A federal official lobbied local businesses for the Affordable Care Act on Thursday.
Sol Ross, business outreach director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, met with about a dozen people, small business owners and members of the Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce.
"Health care is jobs," Ross told the gathering, which included managers from senior centers and senior help agencies.
He both detailed and made the case for the act, touted by supporters as a sea change in health care but facing virulent opposition, including from small business owners who've said the costs of what cynics dubbed "Obamacare" will severely hamper or even kill their operations.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear a legal challenge next year from 26 states, led by Florida.
On Thursday in Boynton Beach, Ross argued the act would create jobs, improve health care, save money, protect Medicare and seniors from fraud and help small businesses find and compare plans.
"I might be too frank," Glenn Jorgensen, president of the 600-member chamber, told Ross. "The small businesses struggle to get health care for their employees."
Small businesses get a tax credit for providing health insurance to employees right now, and in 2014 they will be on the same negotiating footing as large group employers when they can purchase insurance for employees on health exchanges.
Small businesses now pay rates significantly higher than large group employers because they lack the negotiating power of large companies.
Also on hand Thursday: Craig Borkon of Know Your Care, a nonprofit that lobbies for the act.
The Boynton Beach meeting was Ross' seventh of eight in Florida cities.
"We're in the heart, really, of a medical area," Jorgensen told Ross, citing the various hospitals and medical centers nearby.
Staff writer Stacey Singer contributed to this story.
Source : http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/federal-official-pushes-health-care-plan-in-boynton-2034865.html
