Builders are perplexed by the health care law that moved Thursday from political controversy to impending reality, an industry spokesman said.
"Most people in construction want to know what does it mean to me," said Keith Woods, CEO of the Santa Rosa-based North Coast Builders Exchange. "Confusion reigns."
Cynthia Murray, president of the North Bay Leadership Council, said the Supreme Court's 5-4 vote to uphold most of the law will help businesses get on with decisions about hiring and expansion.
"It takes one of the uncertainties off the table," she said.
Many businesses, facing questions about taxes and health care, were "sitting it out," said Murray, president of the group that represents 43 businesses in Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties.
Woods said the builders exchange, which represents 1,200 construction-related businesses with more than 10,000 employees in Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties, took no position on the controversial law and members now want help understanding it.
A prevalent question, Woods said, is whether employers who are currently providing heath insurance can continue to do so, or will they be required to switch to a government-mandated program.
And from the perspective of a Santa Rosa health insurance broker, insurance companies will prosper as the law's major provisions take effect in 2014, but brokers who sell workplace health plans will be devastated.
David Hodges said he merged his own company with Vantreo, a Santa Rosa firm, so he can sell workers' compensation and general liability insurance as well as health plans.
Insurance companies like Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente will profit from participating in California's insurance exchange, Hodges said.
Insurers will get more customers and will have to charge higher premiums to offset the cost of millions more people covered by Medi-Cal, the state program for low-income people and families.
"No question about it," Hodges said.
Brokers like him will lose business as the state exchange directs people into health plans with subsidized premiums for some customers, Hodges said.
In terms of public health, the law will provide much-needed care for uninsured people, such as indigent diabetics, he said.
But overall, the health care system will fail economically due to the surge in Medi-Cal costs. "It's an upside down pyramid; it's going to collapse," Hodges said.
Some have said the health care law was "designed to fail" and push the nation into a single-payer health care system, Hodges said.
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