Nancy L. Johnson: “And you know this issue that you bring up about the subsidy structure that both the Clinton plan and the Stark proposal…”

“And you know this issue that you bring up about the subsidy structure that both the Clinton plan and the Stark proposal provide is very important. It recognizes that small businesses for the most part cannot afford to provide health benefits to their employees and that for the most part that is why they do not provide health benefits for their employees. So both in the President's plan and in the Stark plan, they attempt to subsidize the provision of health benefits for small companies. But let us look at their subsidy program. First of all, it is underfunded. They allow $28 billion to fund it. Recent studies have shown that it will cost $81 billion. If, in fact, the subsidies are not available, then many small companies that by definition in the Clinton plan cannot afford health benefits are going to have to pay them whether they can afford them or not. But let us look at the rest of the subsidy structure. Under the Clinton plan, if you are a company of 25 or under employees, you have to have an average wage of $12,000 to qualify for that 3.5 percent of payroll subsidy that the President is proposing. Mr. Speaker, in my State of Connecticut that is a high wage but high cost of living State, I do not know of a single company, no matter how small their profit margin, no matter what fingernails they are hanging on by, I do not know one company that will be eligible for that subsidy.”