How Many Senators Does it Take to Write an Op-Ed?

Man, this guy Mark Hodesh is a walking Obama parrot!

Crain’s health summit attendees get primer on understanding reforms

October 14, 2010

Mark Hodesh, president of Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor, said he already has used the $15,000 tax credit he expects to receive next year as a small employer of under 25 workers to hire a 14th employee and fund an advertising campaign to compete against larger companies.

“The tax credit gave me the confidence to hire a new employee at a $35,000 salary and pull the strings on a $25,000 ad campaign,” said Hodesh. “The new employee was unemployed; now she is paying taxes.”

Hodesh said the new employee bought a $6,500 motorcycle. “Now the motorcycle shop benefits,” he said.

But Scott Lyon, vice president of small business services with the Small Business Association of Michigan, said only 10 percent to 15 percent of small businesses with under 100 employees will benefit from the tax credits and health care reform.

“My experience the last four months talking with small business owners … is they want to know what this means in lower costs,” said Lyon, adding: “We see higher costs and health care reform driving costs higher.”

Premiums drive some small-business support
Nov 29, 2009

Mark Hodesh and Larry Prior are small-business owners who have been struggling to pay double-digit annual increases in health insurance costs for their employees the past decade.

Hodesh and Prior said approval earlier this month of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) in the U.S. House of Representatives by a 220-215 margin was an important first step toward reforming a U.S. health care system that costs too much and delivers lower quality and poorer outcomes

“I’ve been telling people as I’ve heard about health care reform that we need it,” said Hodesh, who owns Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor.

“

I have been in small business for 40 years. My conclusion is that without health care reform, these increasing costs will put me out of business.”

“We have been trying to lower our costs over the years by changing our benefit plan and increasing co-pays and deductibles,” Hodesh said.

“I have to do this because I can’t pass along my (health insurance) cost increases to my customers. They will not pay $50 for a frying pan,” he said.

Hodesh pays 75 percent of premium costs for the six of the company’s 11 employees who opt for health insurance.

Four other employees get health insurance through their spouses, and the fifth employee is “young and indestructible,” he said.

Lackey Hodesh is only covering 50% of his 11 employees!

The Senate bill does not contain an employer mandate, but does require employers with 50 or more full-time workers to pay a fee of $750 per employee if any of their workers receive federal subsidies to buy insurance.

Hodesh: “

We won’t pay more because we are too small

,” he said. “I just think it is a good deal for us to have solid health reform. If more people are covered, they will be healthier and less of a burden on the system.”

DSchoen on February 4, 2011 at 4:16 AM