“I am going out of business if Amendment 56 passes”
September 30th, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |Forcing employers to buy medical insurance for their employees results in lower wages, lost jobs for the poor, and other undesirable outcomes. One is that companies simply close. Writes Karen Kristopeit-Parker, in a letter to the Denver Post:
I have owned the Fresh Fish Company in Denver for four years. I was able to put the money together to buy this restaurant after working there for 15 years. It gives me a great sense of pride that I was able to work my way up through the ranks and live the American dream.
If even one of these four initiatives passes, my business may have to close.
Amendment 56 (mandatory health care) will force anyone who employs 20 or more people to pay 80 percent of the employee’s health insurance costs, plus 70 percent of their dependents’ health insurance. This would cost me an additional $9,000 per year, per employee. With my 5 percent profit margin (average for restaurants), I would need to generate an additional $180,000 per year, per employee to cover that cost. I am going out of business if Amendment 56 passes.
Kristopeit-Parker is not the first to express this idea. As Paul Hsieh, M.D. of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine wrote in his opposition to Amendment 56 published in the Rocky Mountain News:
According to Howard Roerig, owner of Seale & Associates, Inc. in Centennial, “This measure will have a chilling effect on all small businessmen. Although I don’t have 20 employees at present, I would make certain never to hire that 20th person. The costs would be so high that I would be better off starting another firm in a different state, and letting it do business in Colorado as an out-of-state firm.
“I would have to find some means of skirting this measure or else close my doors.”
Note: Karen Kristopeit-Parker is a Vice Chairman of the Colorado Restaurant Association.
tags: colorado amendment 56, employer mandate
