Harry Reid: Biggest problem with health care reform is lack of information about benefits

By Delen Goldberg

Monday, March 21, 2011 | 12:41 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says health care reform is working.

Patients with pre-existing conditions are being insured. Seniors are receiving free wellness checks. Small businesses are cashing in on tax credits for insuring employees.

But many more Nevadans could benefit. The biggest problem with the Affordable Care Act is that many people don't know what it offers, Reid said.

As a result, thousands of people and small business owners are losing out on services and financial incentives.

The government needs to do a much better job publicizing programs, Reid said.

Reid came to Las Vegas on Monday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of health care reform and get the word out about provisions the law offers.

Health and Human Services officials sent 44 million mailers to small business owners telling them about available health insurance tax credits, but many threw them away thinking they were junk mail, Reid said.

Outreach has become one of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' prime responsibilities, Reid said.

Reid met Monday with health care experts and small business owners at Pioneer Overhead Door, a garage door manufacturer in Las Vegas.

Owner Ron Nelsen, a Reid supporter, said he received $2,235 in tax credits last year under the Affordable Care Act to offset the cost of providing health insurance for his four employees.

Nelsen said he had subsidized the entire cost of his workers' insurance for many years "because it's the right thing to do and it attracts quality workers" but had to cut the subsidies in half in 2009 because of the bad economy.

The tax credit was "the first good news I've gotten about health insurance in a long time," Nelsen said.

In 2008, Nevada small businesses spent $972 million on health care costs, according to John Arensmeyer, founder of the Small Business Majority, a non-partisan group that advocates for small businesses.

Without health care reform, that figure would have jumped to $2.6 billion over the next 10 years.

And Nevada leads the nation in uninsured people.

A study commissioned by the Small Business Majority last year found that 78 percent of Nevada small businesses would be eligible for tax credits if they provided insurance to employees and applied. That's about 29,000 businesses.

But 57 percent of small business owners don't know they are eligible for the tax credits, Arensmeyer said. More than 60 percent are unaware of health insurance exchanges, which will take effect in 2014 and give small businesses greater buying power.

Small businesses currently pay an average of 18 percent more for insurance policies than large businesses, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional director Herb Schultz said.

"All you have to do is explain the benefits to people and they jump on it," Reid said.

That appears to be only partially true.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 51 percent of Americans want to keep health insurance reform as it is or expand it. But 39 percent of citizens believe it should be repealed or replaced.