John McCain has been making a point of Obama's intention to place an employer mandate on health coverage, in turn possibly hurting businesses. This plan is true enough, Obama does plan on "mandating" employer coverage by allowing companies to make their own choice as to whether to provide health benefits for their employees or to let them buy their own, with money from the employer.



The only thing is, Obama has not been clear on how much businesses will be made to pay if they choose not to provide benefits to their employees. It cannot be easily agreed upon as to the exact amount, but experts guess it would be between 3 ad 7 percent of a company's payroll. But that 3 percent is even a little scary to employers.

"If they do that, prices go up and employment goes down because nobody can absorb that," stated a business owner, in regards to the amount being close to 6 percent. Economists are guesstimating that close to 224,000 workers will be either laid off or facing lowered wages, says the New York Times.

Senator McCain's plan is trying to lure businesses to stop offering health plans totally. Group health insurance would not be tax exempt anymore, under McCain's plan. This would mean, for the first time ever, that coverage sponsored by an employer would be taxed.

One advantage is that McCain would give tax credits in the amount of $5,000, to assist people in getting their own coverage privately. So the bottom line is mandated or no health benefit costs. If we were to make an educated guess, we would presume that employers will be more likely to be in favor of McCain's health insurance plan.