The rubber is about to hit the road in the drive to enact health care reform legislation.

At least one congressional committee this week will begin debating and soon will vote on a health care reform bill.

If the process seems fast, that's because it is. By comparison, in 1993, the last time an administration and Congress were serious about health care reform, the first measure—put together by a presidential task force headed by then First Lady Hillary Clinton—didn't emerge until September of that year. Congressional committees didn't start to consider the bill until the next year. Ultimately, legislators junked the bill, but couldn't reach an agreement on one to replace it.

All our instincts tell us this time will be different. Unlike in 1993, Congress and the administration are working closely to win passage of legislation. The likelihood of passage also is greatly increased with a Democrat in the White House and with Democrats in control of both branches of Congress.

That presents employers with a dilemma. Clearly, there are going to be provisions, like a mandate that employers must provide coverage meeting certain standards or pay some kind of fee or tax, in the legislation they vehemently dislike.


In light of that, some employers may feel the best course of action is to fight the legislation. But the risk of that approach is employers would lose their ability to influence legislators. But by negotiating, some employers may feel they might increase the chances of legislation they oppose of winning passage.

Employers are in a tough position. Our strong suggestion is to stay involved. Legislators will have little incentive to listen to the concerns of employers if they know employers have no interest in working with them to improve the reform legislation.

Reform of the nation's health care delivery and financing system is too important for the business community to stay on the sidelines.