PORT TOWNSEND — Mark Peters, Port Townsend small business owner, wanted to let Sen. Patty Murray know what he thought about the state of health care in this country.
The Freeland Democrat let the country know what he thought in a speech she gave to Congress on Tuesday night, after passage of the contentious health care reform bill.
Peters, who owns Agilis Technologies in Port Townsend, said he didn’t want to become another “Joe the Plumber,” the “everyman” who became an overnight sensation when he spoke up for the Republican platform during the 2008 presidential campaign.
But he wanted to speak his mind.
“I was anxious that with the rising costs [of health care and insurance] that there be some structure for control within the government,” he said Friday.
In the letter to Murray, he said that his company’s health insurer, Regency, raised his company’s rates by 25.7 percent.
He didn’t have figures at hand on the exact cost to his business but said that much of an increase would hurt any business, and that health insurance is one of his highest costs.
Peters currently employs nine people who fabricate industrial evaporative coolers, used everywhere from mines to power plants and paper mills to clean the air of particulates.
“We’re a tight-knit family,” he said. “I want to make sure they are taken care of.”
Murray speech
In her speech on the Senate floor, Murray said, “Starting today, people like Mark Peters, the owner of a small technology company in Port Townsend, Wash., will be able to better afford care for his employees.
“Months ago, Mark wrote to tell me that he offers health insurance to his employees. He does the right thing. But last year [he] got a letter from his insurance company raising his rates by 25 percent.
“Mark told me his small business can’t sustain increases like that — no business could.”
While the health care bill signed by President Obama on Tuesday doesn’t promise to lower existing health insurance premiums, Murray noted that “starting today . . . small-business owners like Mark will immediately qualify for the first phase of a tax credit program to help them purchase insurance for their families and their employees.”
Murray said the credit that will go into effect immediately is up to 35 percent of the employer’s contribution to coverage, “which would make such a big difference for almost 100,000 small-business owners in Washington state, right away.”
Peters, who said he is a Democrat who votes on both sides of the aisle, is taking a wait-and-see approach to how the bill actually affects his business.
Legislation daunting
He tried accessing the document online, but at 2,000 pages it was a bit daunting.
“The table of contents alone is 10 pages,” he said.
What he hoped for with the historic health care legislation was reform to make insurance coverage affordable for all; exemptions for pre-existing conditions and regulation to ensure uniformity, with standard licensing of doctors and accreditation of hospitals, and regulation to ensure that health insurance companies are not allowed to overcharge patients.
He’s still hoping that will come to pass.
“At first I was enthusiastic about the health care bill,” he said. “As it morphed I became less enamored.
“I don’t know if we got a good deal or not.”
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Features Editor Marcie Miller can be reached at 360-417-3550 or marcie.miller@peninsuladailynews.com.