Penfield, NY – Yesterday morning Congressman Dan Maffei, NY District 25, held a Chamber of Commerce Members briefing about how the Health Care Reform Act will affect New York will affect small businesses.  The event took place from 11:00am-12:30pm at the Shadow Lake Country Club. The session, hosted by Congressman Maffei, was actually conducted by Ben Geyerhahn, who co-authored The Impact of Healthcare Reform on New York’s Small Businesses and who has advised “social venture capitalists on the purchase of companies that identify and deliver public benefits, such as SCHIP and food stamps“. The event was attended by about 30 regional business owners who had to pre-register through Maffei’s campaign office in order to attend.  The presentation by Geyerhahn acknowledged some of the undesired consequences of the Health Care Reform act and attempted to highlight some possible benefits.

Before introducing Geyerhahn as a lawyer from the Upper West Side of New York City and the New York Project Director for the Small Business Majority, Mr. Maffei pointed out that New York Seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage will be facing cuts in benefits. He also established “ground rules” for discussion by saying that the health care bill had passed and that it was not the time to talk about whether it should or should not have been passed because it was a “done deal”.  He said that it was now time to discuss the ramifications and ways in which the law would be implemented.

Among the known small business impacts discussed were increased initial costs due to higher premiums (expected as early as 1 January 2011, and the fact that employers would now be required to cover 60% of the total of all employee health care costs instead of only the premiums. Also, there was confusion about how and when part-time employees were required to be covered under the new law. Maffei interjected on at least two occasions that only businesses that are not financially strong would be overly impacted by the increased costs and indicated that companies that already had established human resource departments should have no problem absorbing and adjusting to the changes.

Geyerhahn outlined a situation whereby some of the provisions of the new law are not good for New Yorkers because of current state laws that already accomplish, if not exceeded much of what the Federal Health Care Reform Act intends to do. Both Maffei and Geyerhahn acknowledged that there are certain things about the federal law that would negatively impact the costs and quality of health care in Western NY.  Maffei said that Western NY already had a strong cultural priority for health care and has enjoyed quality and access that other parts of the nation have not. In essence, through mandated health care coverage for more people in the nation, there would be a detrimental effect on health care in NY.

Possible benefits mentioned included tax benefits for companies with fewer than 25 employees, the anticipated eventual flattening (or decrease in the rate of inflation) for health care because of altering the risk pool by forcing younger and healthier citizens to participate. In other words, this would require younger and healthier people to pay for more health care than they would most likely require, which in turn would help to subsidize health care for higher risk individuals with greater needs. Another hope cited by Geyerhahn was that once implemented, the administration was likely to be less complex because of the standardization of plans. Maffei and Geyerhahn both cited the State of Massachusetts and the Veterans Administration systems as models upon which the Federal plan was based. Geyerhahn explained that there would be fixed costs for treatments and that it should increase quality because hospitals would no longer be rewarded by getting paid for people who required extended stays due to complications.

What few questions that were asked were met more often with a reiteration of the information that was already presented, or by promises to get back to the questioners once the answers were determined. For example, a question was asked if there was anything in the law that would directly address cost containment. Maffei answered indirectly by saying that this law was only the beginning, and that there is already discussion of another health care law for next year that would better address cost containment. He said that one problem that needed to be addressed in the near-future was a shortage of health care professionals.  Maffei closed the session by stating that the Health Care Reform Act was less about health care reform, but was more about health insurance reform.

It was evident that Congressman Maffei did not really have a true grasp on the implications of the Health Care Reform Act that he voted for. The polite audience appeared to be anything but impressed and there were more eye-rolls than smiles. Maffei’s mannerisms throughout the briefing could best be described as fidgety and nervously uncomfortable. Absent was any excitement or enthusiasm that you would expect for such a momentous law if it truly were a good thing for Western New Yorkers. I found it insulting that Maffei brought along a legal consultant to explain the implications of the health care law that he voted for, to his constituents. I also found it culturally oblivious to bring a New York City lawyer in to speak to Western NY community business leaders who are likely sensitive to the fact that New York City is all-too-often the source of all negative governmental regulation imposed upon Western New Yorkers.  Overall, I found Congressman Maffei to be somewhat apologetic in his demeanor, which seemed to communicate the idea that he was fearful of the reaction that his audience would have about the looming costly impacts of the Health Care Reform Act.  Perhaps Congressman Maffei should have read the bill before passing it.