Nancy L. Johnson: “In other words, the companies the gentleman is describing are investing real dollars in health care cost control, in…”

“In other words, the companies the gentleman is describing are investing real dollars in health care cost control, in prevention, and wellness, and getting their employees involved, and early intervention and all those things to make for better health and controlling the costs of health care, and all of those investments would essentially have to be withdrawn because their payroll tax for health care would be the same as the payroll tax in the company down the street who did not make any investment at all, and over time they would be forced to redirect their dollars from investing in health care cost control to R&D, or something like that, because there are no investments they would make under the employer mandate. it would not make any difference in the cost of their health care because the cost of that company's health care would be a percent of payroll based on the adjusted average premium, not of their employees even, but in the area. So companies would finally, because they could not get any benefit from their investment in wellness, would finally cease to make it, and that is what is so sort of sad about the employer mandate.”