Fredrich likes the consumer-driven HSA approach, because it “comes the closest to putting the free market back into the system.”

But he doubts if his plan would meet the minimum coverage standards that would be established by a federal board under the health care reform bills pending in Congress.

“The game is to force us to offer a plan that covers everything, which we will not be able to afford,” said Fredrich, whose company has slashed production to three days a week due to lack of orders.

Instead of offering a government-mandated plan, MCM would pay 8 percent of its payroll to the federal government—the penalty imposed by the House health care bills on employers that don’t provide acceptable insurance to their workers.

Then, Fredrich said, he would deduct an equivalent amount of money from his employees’ paychecks and tell them who’s responsible: Congress.

“They’re the ones that just lowered their pay,” he said.

Obama hears from business owners

Thousands of small-business owners like Conklin, Borris, and Fredrich have marched to the front lines of the health care reform battle during Congress’ August recess.

They’re attending town-hall meetings, calling and writing their members of Congress, talking to newspaper editorial boards, and appearing on local television shows.

President Barack Obama heard from two small-business owners during his town-hall meetings in Montana and Colorado.

Nancy Lien Griffin, president of Madison Lumber Co. in Ennis, Montana, asked the president what can be done “to eliminate discrimination against small employers.”

Her six employees are physically fit because “we’re out there lifting boards and packing stuff all day long,” she said.

Yet her company gets a worse deal on health insurance than a company with “30 employees who sit in cubicles on their butts instead of working them off,” she said.

Obama said small businesses like Griffin’s would benefit from the creation of an insurance exchange, which would enable small businesses “to get the best rates from the insurance companies.”