Oregon Public Broadcasting

The U.S. Senate's Health, Labor, and Pensions committee continues its retooling of Senator Ted Kennedy's health care policy bill.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley is concentrating his efforts on an amendment that would allow more small businesses to take part in an insurance exchange.

That's a system that offers a basic meat-and-potatoes health plan that anyone can buy into, as well as a way for consumers to compare private health plans side-by-side.

Merkley wants to widen access to the exchange from companies with ten employees or fewer to companies with fifty or fewer.

Jeff Merkley: "The number of businesses in Oregon who have 10 to 50 employees is about 24,000, and the number of folks employed by those companies is about a half a million."

However, it's not clear if all those businesses are ready to jump into the exchange pool.

The concept relies on the idea that all businesses will be required to buy insurance for their workers. And that's a provision small business lobbyists have been trying to get struck from the bill.

Merkley says there is an option for businesses that don't want to furnish health care -- pay the government a fee of $750 per employee.

That money, he says, would go toward subsidizing the health care system.