Breaks for Small Business
Starting Jan. 1, 2009 small businesses in Alabama that provide health coverage to their workers will be eligible for tax breaks, according to an article by the Associated Press. A new law, sponsored by Representative Jay Love and Representative Richard Lindsey, will allow business owners with fewer than 25 employees to deduct 150 percent of the amount they pay for workers' health insurance premiums from their state income taxes. In addition, small business employees who earn $50,000 or less may deduct 150 percent of insurance costs from their income taxes. The deduction had been 100 percent. To get the deduction, employees have to spend more than 4 percent of their adjusted gross income on medical expenses. To pay for the tax break, which is expected to cost the state $33 million annually, the Republican governor recommended and the Democrat-controlled Legislature passed a bill to close some loopholes that large national corporations use to pay lower state income taxes in Alabama. That bill, designed to raise $54 million annually, reins in the practice of national corporations paying a sister company huge amounts for use of a trademark and then using those payments to lower their state taxes on income generated in Alabama. "[M]ore than 80 percent of all new jobs created in Alabama are created by small businesses," Governor Bill Riley told the Associated Press. "It’s never made sense to me that we will give incentives to large companies but not small businesses that create most of the new jobs."
"Pro-Life" Drug Stores
The latest salvo in the war of medicine versus conscience has been fired by DMC Pharmacy, a new drug store in Chantilly, Virginia, which refuses to carry any form of contraception, the Washington Post reports. That includes birth control pills, Plan B and condoms. The issue of whether pharmacists and other medical professionals are required to dispense medications and perform procedures that conflict with their religious beliefs has been the subject of intense debate in the states. Four states—California, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington—have laws requiring pharmacists to fill all prescriptions or direct women to pharmacies that will. Another 10 states are considering similar legislation. Supporters of DMC say they are protecting the right of individuals to stand by their ethical beliefs. "This allows a pharmacist who does not wish to be involved in stopping a human life in any way to practice in a way that feels comfortable," Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life International, told the Post. Others, however, claim that such pharmacies unfairly target women, denying them needed medications while holding pharmaceuticals for men to a different standard. "If he gets his Viagra, why can't she get her contraception?" asked Anita L. Nelson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Special Training Needed
Congress is currently considering reauthorization of the Wakefield Act (HR 2464), a program that provides grants to states to develop specialized trauma care for children. The act would reauthorize The Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) program, which Congress enacted in 1984 to train providers in specialized care for children who are harmed in accidents. Children respond to trauma in manifestly different ways than adults, necessitating the additional training for emergency responders. The program is credited with a 40 percent drop in accident-related injury deaths in children, according to Deseret News. The Wakefield act has already passed the House of Representatives and is currently under consideration in the Senate.
© Copyright 2008, State Health Notes
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