Why employers aren’t rooting for health care reform to die

Is health care reform in danger?

Count the menaces. Rep. John Boehner and Tea Party victors have promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. State lawyers are challenging the individual mandate. Republicans are looking to block funding. The administration is offering waivers to firms and insurance companies to provide inadequate coverage until the law goes into fuller effect in 2014. Everywhere you look, the law appears under assault.

To understand what American employers thought about health care reform, I spoke with Andrew Webber, President and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health, a national, not-for-profit organization that represents public and private sector employers. Here is an edited transcript of our wide-ranging conversation.