Business Leaders Concerned About Economic Impact Of Health Law
With the economy stalling, Republicans and industry officials are skeptical of the health overhaul.
CNN Money: Are New Rules On Health Care And Banks Killing Jobs?
To many Republicans and business leaders, there's little doubt: The health care law and sweeping new Wall Street regulation — two of President Obama's signature legislative victories — are causing uncertainty and killing jobs. Take, for example, a massive public relations campaign organized by House Republican leaders. One online commercial features the head of the restaurant chain that owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr. — CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder. "Health care is probably the most significant unknown," Puzder says in the video. "We have a consultant we use ... and the range they gave us on our health care costs increasing at CKE Restaurants was between $7.3 million and $35.1 million," (Liberto, 9/6).
Des Moines Register: Employers Skeptical Of Health Law
Business owners in Iowa, already pummeled by the skyrocketing cost of health insurance over the past decade, are also deeply skeptical of a health care overhaul many of them don't understand. Fifty-four percent of employers either strongly or somewhat agree the law should be repealed, according to the 2011 Iowa Employer Benefits Survey published by David P. Lind & Associates in Clive (Belz, 9/4).
Meanwhile, in other news about the health law, the high-risk health care plans are not yet drawing the crowd that many expected. And HHS is looking at an innovative approach to notifying immigrants of the benefits of the law.
Stateline: High-Risk Health Care Plans Fail To Draw Crowd
Throughout the rancorous public debate over the national health law, two provisions have maintained broad public support. ... Covering young adults [up to age 26] has been a resounding success. As of April 2011, more than 600,000 were included in their parents’ health plans. ... But the health law's lifeline for sick people who can’t get insurance anywhere else has been a virtual nonstarter (Vestal, 9/6).
Kaiser Health News: Reaching Out To Legal Immigrants Who Need Health Care
When Dillon Pefok agreed to coach a men's soccer team in the District's Soccer 4 Jesus church league, it wasn't his intention to teach the players about the 2010 health-care law between drills. But the league was brimming with uninsured African immigrants, and he had learned from a training session in March that the law would, among other things, extend Medicaid eligibility to thousands of lower-income people. ... Pefok is one of many faith and community leaders that the federal Department of Health and Human Services is targeting through a partnership with the Cameroon American Council (Werber Serafini, 9/6).
