NE: Kerrey says employer mandate should be cut

Home > Nebraska > NE: Kerrey says employer mandate should be cut

NE: Kerrey says employer mandate should be cut

By Deena Winter / September 7, 2012 / 14 Comments

By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog

Bob Kerrey

LINCOLN, Neb. — The head of the Nebraska Republican Party said U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey is all over the map regarding the federal health-care law, after his comment that he “hates” the law’s requirement that businesses provide health insurance for workers or pay a fine.

Beginning in 2014, businesses with more than 50 full-time employees must provide their employees with health insurance or pay a fine of $2,000 per employee, according to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Kerrey told Nebraska Watchdog’s Joe Jordan (see video below) on Friday that this part of the law should be repealed. Business owners might stop providing health insurance benefits, because paying the penalty would be cheaper, Kerrey said.

“I support the law. I want to fix it,” he said. “I want to make improvements to it.”

The former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator is running for his old Senate seat against state Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Valentine.

He told a Rotary club that his Nebraska businesses — Grandmother’s restaurants and Prairie Life health clubs — might opt to drop health insurance, which costs at least $7,000 per employee annually. Then the employees could purchase insurance from health-care exchanges, which are online marketplaces that offer health coverage, required under ACA.

Kerrey has supported federalizing health insurance — while running for president, he proposed a single-payer national health plan.

Fischer wants to repeal ACA and replace it with policies that permit market forces to lower health-care costs, such as limiting medical malpractice judgments and allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines.

GOP state chairman Mark Fahleson expressed surprise that Kerrey would “dump his company’s employees” from private insurance and “force them into the government plan.”

Claiming Kerrey trails badly in the polls Fahleson said, “Desperate men do desperate things.”

Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org and follow her on Twitter @DeenaNEWatchdog.

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Deena Winter

ps.

goes to show you, democrats will say anything to curry favor
jazzee

the whole law should be thrown out bob and corrected in small steps common sense steps not this sweeping garbage that obama passed. this thing is a mess and of course businesses will drop the cost of their insurance just like you will bob…
D. Mark

The whole law should be thrown out, so we need to support Milt Romney so that is what he will do on his first day in office. Everyone wants to change parts of the law and by the time everyone with any influence gets done with it, it would be time to throw it out with the rest of the garbage! VOTE!
http://twitter.com/Lisa_Kramer96 Lisa Kramer

The entire thing needs to be thrown out. We can have laws that govern insurance companies to do the right thing (what they should be doing all along) toss out preexisting conditions and lifetime caps. But insurance companies were the ones to benefit from it, now because it will be mandated that people buy this. This hurts all business including small business and it hurts individuals that can’t afford to buy health care coverage. Obama said he wanted this so that no one would have to go bankrupt. Well I had health insurance through my job and I may still have to file for bankruptcy because I couldn’t pay for what the insurance didn’t cover because my income solely supported me and my children, and then I lost my job. I am still unemployed but going to school when I graduate this spring if I don’t file for bankruptcy (medical) then I will still be paying for past bills and my student loans and I’ll have to have insurance for myself and my two children. When I last priced insurance just for myself it was over $300 a month. Even if I am making $13 an hour (an amount that is higher then I have ever made) which is $5.75 above min. wage insurance will take 14% of my income, my rent takes 30% of my income and collection agency take another 15% of my income. That leaves me with only 41% percent of my income with which to pay my other bills, put gas in my car, and in general raise my two kids (which I am only getting 44 a weak in child support). This “Affordable” Health Care Act is anything but affordable to the american people. Also I would like to remind Kerry that Sen. Ben Nelson was the tie breaker in this vote and voted for it only because Neb. received a money better known as the “Cornhusker Kickback” its just shameful that he sold us out and when he returned to Neb. and went out to eat he was booed out of the restaurant. So if I were you I would be treading very lightly. Better yet come on over to the Republican side (we have cookies not kickbacks).
Your fellow Nebraskan
Oh and just a PS. I am now on Medicaid because I am so “poor” and because of the changes to Medicaid brought about by the “Affordable” Care Act I will have to change doctors because the doctor I have been seeing for the last 18 years does not take Arbor even though they take Medicaid. So for those that think this will not make you change doctors it will.
Joan

I think Mr Kerry needs to re-think his statement of eliminating the employer mandate found in the Affordable Healthcare Plan. At this time it is best to leave things as they are, get your self elected and then deal with people who want to eliminate the entire plan. The fine tuning can come later.
jazzee

the federal government has admitted that you won’t be able to keep your plan/doctor obama lied to the people again..this whole law is a nightmare.
ricky

Time for Mr Kerrey to go back to New York City.
ToucheTurtle

Yes, and we know EXACTLY how well things go when “leave things as they re . . . ” Fixing ANYTHING after the fact in Washington is a misnomer . . . . plainly, it WON’T happen!!! Thank you for your professional opinion because I am assuming that your are speaking from a health care professional’s point of view . . . . you indicated once before that you “work in the field”! And by the way, do you represent a majority of providers in Nebraska, or are you just “out there” putting yourself out as an authority on what HAS to happen???

You want to “deal with people who want to eliminate the entire plan” later??? You know if you took a vote of the people today, there are MORE who want it repealed than want to keep it??? We all know that “fixing it later” is nothing but a ploy to shut us up!!! Perhaps WE who are against the ACA should deal with folks on the other side of the issue NOW so we don’t HAVE to deal with them later!!!!!

The last time I looked we do NOT live in a dictatorship where a few of the people make decisions for the rest of the people! We ALL have representation, and much to your dismay I am sure, whether or not Mr. Kerrey gets elected may be about as important as a pimple on your “you-know-what”!!! “Doing the right thing” hasn’t been his long suit so far . . . come November 6 we will find out if he will have the opportunity to change his reputation!

Have a good day . . . loving this weather!! Now all we need is some rain . . . .
OmaSteak

Cosmic Bob “I’ve proven I’ll say anything” Kerrey is going to do more and more of this flip-flopping as election day nears and his poll numbers continue to sag. On the upside, maybe after he loses we can petition the Omaha city council to rename that useless bridge to “I didn’t know when to quit” bridge.
jazzee

Steak: now that post was too funny…..made my stomach hurt
Progressive Dave

If your talking about representatives of businesses, then I agree, they will say anything to make a buck. I dont know what Kerry paid his waiters and waitresses, but in this good republican state of nebraska, servers have the same minimum wage now, $2.13 an hour, as they did in 1965?, the last time “the peoples representatives” raised the minimum.
But, I would still trust him more than I would “Diamond” Deb Fisher–Nebraskas biggest welfare queen.
jazzee

Apparently old Bob doesn’t know without the mandate/TAX the whole stupid mess doesn’t work and does he mention the feds now say more than 25 million still won’t be covered…this thing is a nightmare and should be thrown out. Ask old Bob about the 13000 pages of rules and regulations ???? who trusts anything old BOb says anyway not me
Nancy Burgermeister

Exactly! Throw it out! Remove the insurance companies! Let’s get a single payer plan like UK or Canada or lots of other countries, and put all these insurance lobbyists to work doing something useful, like nurses! DOWN WITH FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANIES! HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.
http://www.facebook.com/grace.morris.16 Grace Morris

The Affortable Health Care Act is so affortable that I can’t afford to go to the doctors anymore. This year my deductible is $600, co-pay $30 & the insurance will cover only 70% after deductible is met & $30 co-pay is paid….and should I find myself in the emergency room, my co-pay is $500…The employer no longer offers the HMO plans that I had for over 20 years with one employer or others…many companies are going this route. The more I read about Obamacare, I find it’s going to be just that, for catastrophic coverage with out of pocket expenses up to $6,000 annually…that’s not what he was offering. And all the illegal immigrants that never paid a premium & had a 100% coverage, still will..It will just make it unaffortable for the middle class, with lower earnings & highter medical bills. Can you afford to payout $6,000 in addition to your monthly premiums? Because I can’t!!!!