Big Corps Back Individual Insurance Mandates

The National Business Group on Health, a non-profit group of nearly 300 large employers including GM and Wal-Mart, has declared where big business stands on healthcare reform.

Perhaps not surprisingly, they don't want businesses to be required to provide coverage to employees. They want people to be required to buy insurance themselves if they don't have it--but to get tax benefits if they do.

The plan is closer to GOP candidates Romney and McCain. Both Clinton and Obama advocate a version of "pay or play"--requiring employers to provide insurance or pay into a fund to subsidize the cost for others.

"Mandating employers to offer coverage or requiring them to pay the government is very harmful to working families and our economy because it will only force employers to eliminate jobs, move more jobs offshore, stunt future job growth, or raise consumer prices," an NBGH spokesman told Dow Jones.

Big businesses are the employers most likely to offer wellness programs that can hold down health insurance costs. NBGH supports annual awards to companies that support healthy lifestyles.