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CBS' Chip Reid introduced us to Chris Warner, worrying about universal healthcare, as the Poster Small Businessman. Warner runs a mountain climbing business in Maryland that makes $280,000 in profits each year yet is worried about going bankrupt if everybody has to be covered. Warner pays annual salaries of $1.4m to his 25 employees--so that averages at $56K per worker--yet offers healthcare coverage to none of them. Reid did not ask him why his firm decided not to offer such benefits, given that they are tax deductible, especially since his firm's business is in such an accident-prone field.
Warner argued that if the legislation passes, his payroll of $1.4m will have to increase to $1.5m to pay for healthcare. He told CBS' Reid that the House bill contained a "double whammy" in that he would have to pay a tax surcharge on any profits above that $280,000 level--which seems to be double counting, since the extra healthcare spending would presumably eat into his profit, bringing him safely below that surtax threshold.
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