The “essential benefit” mandates in President Obama’s healthcare law will drive up costs for small businesses, House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said Thursday.
Graves, in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, said the administration should revise the essential-benefits rule to better reflect the needs of small employers — including small insurance companies.
“Although the Department claims that the health care law and its rules provide ‘flexibility,’ any flexibility is provided within expensive and mandatory categories of benefits, which will increase the cost of premiums for small businesses,” Graves said in his letter Thursday.
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