Martin Runningen reports on Bloomberg News, “President Barack Obama will sign into law legislation for the South Korea, Colombia and Panama free-trade agreements on Oct. 21, along with a measure renewing aid for workers hurt by foreign competition.” According to statement released by the White House, “Business and union leaders will join Obama in the Rose Garden after the bills are signed in the Oval Office.” Doug Goudie, director of international trade policy for the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News, “We think it’s fantastic that just a week after they were passed they’re being signed.” Goudie added, “We hope implementation proceeds just as quickly. We’re thrilled this is happening. It’s time to get these things moving.”

Kyle Glazier writes in today’s Times Union - “U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood renewed the call Tuesday for the passage of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs

Act, despite doubts that the measure is finding much traction in either chamber of Congress.
The act, which Obama introduced before a joint session of Congress last month, contains provisions totaling about $3 billion for building and upgrading transportation infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and airports in New York state.

To read more click here.

The Associated Press reports in the Poughkeepsie Journal - “U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says New York state lost more than 160,000 jobs since 2001 to China because of what he calls unfair trade practices and currency manipulation.

The New York Democrat is trying to build an argument for his bill that would target China’s currency practices. He expects the bill to pass in the Senate next week.”

To read more click here.

Health care spending continues to be the “elephant in the room.” That doesn’t stop any number of entities continuing to provide the data.

The latest National Institute for Health Care Management (NICHM) Foundation Data Brief on U.S. health care found that between 2005 and 2009, total national health spending rose 23 percent from $2.021 trillion to $2.486 trillion. Over the same time period, national spending on premiums for private health insurance rose nearly 15 percent.

And a recent article in Health Affairs on health spending projections to 2020, notes “In 2010, US health spending is estimated to have grown at a historic low of 3.9 percent, due in part to the effects of the recently ended recession. In 2014, national health spending growth is expected to reach 8.3 percent when major coverage expansions from the Affordable Care Act of 2010 begin. The expanded Medicaid and private insurance coverage are expected to increase demand for health care significantly, particularly for prescription drugs and physician and clinical services. Robust growth in Medicare enrollment, expanded Medicaid coverage, and premium and cost-sharing subsidies for exchange plans are projected to increase the federal government share of health spending from 27 percent in 2009 to 31 percent by 2020. This article provides perspective on how the nation’s health care dollar will be spent over the coming decade as the health sector moves quickly toward its new paradigm of expanded insurance coverage.”

Early this morning, negotiations concluded on the framework for the establishment of New York’s Health Exchange.  An analysis of the agreed-upon bill, which is expected to pass both houses of the Legislature today, can be found here.

Significantly, this agreed-upon bill preserves the role of the Legislature in making public policy by requiring the Exchange Board to seek statutory authority on issues such as selective contracting, standardizing benefits available through the exchange, etc. The Exchange in the agreed upon bill will be governed by a Board of 9 members, and will establish 5 regional advisory committees each with 5 members whose role will be to annually review and report on regional variations in the operation of the exchange.

The Board, once appointed, will have a very aggressive timetable to complete and report back to the Legislature and Governor by April 1, 2012 on twenty-two different policy areas.  These studies need not be stand-alone, and their completion may be delayed if federal rulemaking has not been released.

The Business Council believes this negotiated bill takes the proper approach in establishing the governance structure, identifying areas of policy upon which further study and data is required, and will allow for broad stakeholder input and participation.

Please feel free to Maggie if you have any questions.

Cara Matthews writes on Lohud.com - “Gov. Andrew Cuomo submitted legislation Monday that would set up a health-care exchange to comply with the federal Affordable Care Act.

Like Senate Republicans’ bill, which came out last week, the governor’s bill would set up a public authority to administer the exchange, or marketplace. But Cuomo’s legislation would authorize the exchange to negotiate benefits on behalf of consumers and small businesses, and the Senate bill would not.

Small businesses and individuals that don’t have health insurance will purchase benefits through the exchange, which has to be operating on or before Jan. 1, 2014. They will be able to look for plans online or call a toll-free number. The federal government will determine by Jan. 1, 2013, if a state is qualified to run an exchange.

Cuomo said his bill would set up a “centralized, customer-service oriented marketplace” where people and small groups will be able to choose from an array of qualified health plans and obtain decisions on eligibility and subsidies. There are roughly 2.7 million uninsured New Yorkers.”

Judith Messina writes in Crain’s New York Business (subscription-based) - “In the three years that Elizabeth Crowell has offered health insurance to employees at her Brooklyn antiques shops, she’s weathered two rate hikes, of 20% and 25%, on her Empire Blue Cross plan. She is bracing for renewal in November, when she will learn whether she’s in for another steep increase in 2012.

“It’s the only cost in my business that’s unmanageable,” said Ms. Crowell. Last year, she spent $25,500 on coverage for her four-person family and the two full-time employees at her two shops, both called Sterling Place…

New York is determining how to structure its exchange. Key matters and questions include naming or creating a governing body to supervise the exchange, and whether that body will vet offerings; if there will be a single exchange for the whole state or several regional ones; and if the small business and individual markets should be merged.
Many New Yorkers support the idea of an exchange but differ on some major points.

A large number of consumer groups, for example, want the exchange to be an active purchaser, negotiating and determining who can sell what. Small businesses, on the other hand, want flexibility and the widest possible choice, and largely oppose the active-purchaser role.

“We think it will limit choice and competition,” says Margaret Moree, director of federal affairs for the Business Council of New York State.

The only decision New York must make now concerns the governing body. It lags other states, 20 of which have enacted legislation or have it in the works. The choice must be made and approved by the Legislature by June 20, the end of its session, in order for New York to be eligible for millions in federal grants to help establish the marketplace.”

To read more click here.

Steve Sloan writes in Bloomger’s Business Week - “Millionaires can breathe a bit easier. While President Barack Obama says he wants to let income tax cuts that benefit only the wealthiest Americans expire in 2013, several states are rolling back tax increases for top earners.

New York’s highest tax rate on incomes exceeding $500,000 will fall back to 7.85 percent, from 8.97 percent, this year. Maryland’s 6.25 percent tax on incomes above $1 million expired at the end of 2010, while California’s top tax rate for millionaires has dropped to 10.3 percent from 10.55 percent…

…Business groups have been vocal opponents of the temporary hikes. The Business Council of New York State has opposed efforts to maintain the tax increase on the grounds that such measures are an indirect tax on business income. Most business owners who are paid by partnerships or S corporations report business income on their individual returns. Kenneth J. Pokalsky, the Business Council’s senior director of government affairs, says 25 percent of revenue generated from the state’s tax on higher earners came from business income. In California, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, whose members include Bank of America (BAC), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT), along with 12 other business groups, have told lawmakers that tax increases should be extended only if lawmakers agree to “structural reforms” of the budget.”

To read more click here.

Kevin Sack writes in the New York Times - “A five-week flurry of federal appellate hearings on the constitutionality of the Obama health care law kicks off Tuesday in Richmond, Va., beginning the second round of a race to the Supreme Court among a multitude of litigants eager to strike down the president’s signature domestic achievement.

Tuesday’s hearing, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will consider a pair of contradictory rulings sent up from the lower courts. In one case, filed by Virginia’s attorney general, a federal district judge in Richmond ruled late last year that Congress had exceeded its authority by requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance.”

To read more click here.