Gainesville Employers warned about 'Obamacare'

GAINESVILLE - The Fourth Annual HealthSmart Interactive Wellness Expo hosted by the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce at the Georgia Mountains Center began Wednesday morning with dire predictions about the effect of federal health care legislation.

Employee health care benefits specialist Mike Whitney with Flexible Benefit Group said the health care law has more words than the New Testament, but it is hardly good news to employers or employees in a recession economy.

"The health care law is not controlling health care costs," Whitney said. "It's social engineering, it's an attempt to restructure the way our health care is provided."

Whitney said the law has created a committee in Health and Human Services that has the power to dictate what is and what is not reasonable health care.

"No one can overrule them except by an act of Congress," Whitney added.

Whitney said the law is creating uncertainty about how much health care will cost employers, they are not hiring employees, and that is fueling the recession. Whitney told his Wellness Expo audience that while he supports health care reform, he opposes the health care law because he believes it is misguided.

Dr. Jack Chapman with Gainesville Eye Associates said the law will not insure more people at a lower cost as intended; he said the answer is a return to market driven health care upholding the doctor patient relationship.

"The solution to this is to to go back to a market driven approach to allow the person to take ownership of their own health care and their own health," Chapman said. "We need to get back to a doctor patient relationship where you honor that contract between the doctor and the patient, that's where we should be."

A Mountains Center arena full of health care vendors greeted visitors. They offered information, free vision, dental and blood pressure screenings; Walgreens of Gainesville offered flu shots.

"It's an opportunity for companies in town that focus on health and wellness display and promote their products and services," said Robyn Lynch, chamber vice president.