Congressman Bobby Bright organized Tuesday’s Small Business Survival Seminar in Dothan to give small business owners access to information, experts and programs designed to help them navigate the current negative economy.
However, many small business owners attending the seminar believed the current health care reform debate may be the single most important issue that will determine their survival.
That may be why the bulk of Bright’s remarks to the overflow crowd at the Southern Alabama Regional Council on Aging building dealt with the issue.
“I don’t think you need any more burden in the form of taxes and in the form of penalties,” Bright told the crowd Tuesday afternoon.
Bright said he still plans to vote against any of the five versions of the health care reform bill circulating through the House and Senate unless significant changes are made. He said a coalition of Blue Dog Democrats helped to delay a vote on the bill until after the August Congressional recess and that he hoped the bill continued to “move to the middle.”
Some versions of the bill require small businesses that earn more than $500,000 annually to provide health care coverage for its employees, or pay a penalty. Earlier versions, Bright said, lowered the income threshold to $250,000.
Bright said some believe health care reform can be paid for through cost savings in the industry, but he disagrees. And, if the added cost isn’t passed along to small businesses, the middle class or the wealthy, then who will pay for it?
“That’s the question, and there is a lot of emotion out there on both sides,” he said. “I think anybody in America wants everybody to have access to adequate health care, but can we afford it and that’s what everyone is up in arms about.”
Bright said he believes “some form” of health care reform will pass this fall.
“If I can’t support it, I want to make sure it is the least intrusive it can be,” he said.
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