Obama woos small business to support health reform

Obama told small business owners Thursday that Democrats' health reform plans would mean million of their peers would get new tax credits to help pay for insurance and that the smallest firms could save around 25 percent on insurance costs through new exchanges, BusinessWeek reports. In addition to the president's speech to business people in Washington, the White House published a report pitching those and other benefits. It places the number of businesses in line for tax credits at 3.6 million (Tozzi, 10/29).

"We all know that family premiums have skyrocketed more than 130 percent over the past decade," Obama said, according to the Washington Times. "But small businesses have been hit harder than most. ... because small businesses pay higher administrative costs than large ones, your employees pay up to 18 percent more in premiums for the very same health insurance policies" (Weber, 10/29).

The crowd "included owners of small businesses and officials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobbying group that has opposed him on issues including healthcare, taxes and climate change," Reuters reports. The chamber "has also launched television commercials on cable television to fight the so-called 'public option' -- a government-run healthcare insurance program that some companies say will drive up costs for employers and workers" (Zengerle, 10/29).