Bill Clinton: “Our program, as proposed, would make health care entirely portable, including for part-time employees. And essentially…”

“Our program, as proposed, would make health care entirely portable, including for part-time employees. And essentially what would happen is the employers and the employees would have the responsibility for paying while the employee was working for the employer--or seasonal workers. And then when you weren't working, then the Government would help to make sure that the plan is portable and people kept it year-round. It would be the same plan. For part-time employees, as opposed to seasonal workers, the same thing would be true. It depends on how you define part-time, but if the worker worked more than 10 but less than 30 hours a week, the employer would have a responsibility to pay for some of the premium but not the full premium. You have to go over 30 hours a week before he'd have to pay for the full premium. And again, if there were differences, then the Government would help make up the difference there. So that the responsibility would be there, but it would be based on how much time the employee is actually working for the employer. In your case, because you have a smaller business--except when you're hiring your seasonal employees full-time--you would qualify for a small business discount. Could you afford this if it was between 4 and 5 percent of payroll? Mr. Harrison. We think so. But again, since we're not paying it now, it would be an extra cost. And since our profit margin still isn't where we'd like for it to be, that means we're going to have to do something as it relates to raising our prices; meaning then that, yes, we could put that in a part of our budget, but then the cost is going to be in our bid.”