YOUNGSTOWN
Talking to a group of small- business owners, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor blasted the federal health-care-overhaul law – calling it an “example of an overreach by Congress” that will increase the cost of health insurance.
Taylor, a Republican and director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, talked Friday at City Machine Technologies, a Youngstown business, about the law, approved by the federal government in March 2010. Ohio voters will consider a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot to block implementation of the law.
“The plan was sold as pretending to solve the problems” of health-care costs, Taylor said Friday.
Rather than reduce health-care costs, Taylor contends, it will do the opposite in Ohio.
Taylor also criticized federal regulators for “overreaching,” saying they are given “free rein” to write the health-care law.
About 15 local small-business owners participated in the discussion.
Several of them said they’ve experienced difficulties with health insurance, and the new law makes it more challenging.
Health-care premium increases year after year led City Machine Technologies to decide to make changes to employee health-care plans beginning in October, said Claudia Kovach, corporate secretary for the company, City Machine Technologies repairs and manufacturers gears, pumps, motors and generators for steel mills, food processors and public utility companies.
The health-care deductible for the 86 workers at the company will go from $200 to $1,000 for single coverage and from $600 to $2,000 for family coverage, she said.
Health-care expenses cost the company about $2,000 a day, Kovach said.
Over the past seven years, health-care costs at City Machine have nearly doubled, said Mike Kovach, her father, who is the company’s president, general manager and founder.
By 2014, when the health-care overhaul law is fully enacted, Kovach said his company can’t guarantee it could provide health care to its employees.
Jason Hays, vice president of Hays Enterprises in Lordstown, said government mandates, such as the health-care overhaul, hurt his business. The company repairs shopping carts.
“The government needs to know they work for us and they need to protect us from bad regulations,” he said.
The office of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Avon who voted for the legislation, said Friday that the health-care law improves the quality of coverage, provides $40 billion in tax credits for up to 4 million small businesses and allows parents to keep their children on their health-care plans up to age 26.