By Jeremy Pittari
Kiln — Senator Roger Wicker’s visit to Mississippi’s only brewery was not about beer, but about health insurance and excise tax.
After taking a tour of the Lazy Magnolia brewing company in Hancock County, Wicker discussed how changes to the nation’s health insurance system and how much they pay in excise tax would affect small businesses. Wicker said he included the local brewery on his list of stops during his most recent tour of the Gulf Coast after Lazy Magnolia co-owner Leslie Henderson sent him a letter opposing an increase in excise tax.
Wicker said small businesses are essential to the economy because they produce the majority of the state’s jobs and his visit gave him an opportunity to discuss the health care reform policy.
He suggested the smaller businesses, such as Lazy Magnolia, could band together to make health care for the employers and employees alike more affordable without a federal takeover. Another way to make health insurance more affordable would be to make it portable, meaning it went with the employee no matter their place of employment, he said. Making health insurance portable would reduce the risk to employers who start their own business. In order to make health insurance more portable Wicker suggested that individuals would have more ownership of it.
Lazy Magnolia co-owner Mark Henderson saidhealth insurance is a major expense when starting a new business .
Leslie and Mark Henderson said they provide Blue Cross-Blue Shield health insurance to their 14 employees, with none of the cost coming from the employee’s paychecks.
“We do the right thing, we provide health insurance to our employees,” Mark Henderson said.
Leslie Henderson proposes another way to help the small businesses would be to give them a break on excise tax. A reduction of about 50 percent would allow her to purchase more equipment to produce more product, and also hire more workers. She said that extra equipment and staff would generate more tax money for the state.
“So lowering taxes actually improves tax collections,” Leslie Henderson said.
Wicker asked what would happen to her business if the proposed health care reform increased her excise tax. She said the growth of the business would be stifled. Mark Henderson said if the small businesses were allowed to band together, it would give them more leverage to negotiate with health insurance companies. Right now, the state has laws banning such actions, Leslie Henderson said.
