U.S. health care system is not up to snuff

Today in a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, business owners from across the country met with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) about trends in employer-sponsored health coverage. Small and large business owners discussed their concerns with health care costs and urged Congress to make some changes in 2009.

Fixing health care is a top priority and an urgent priority, said Andrew Stern, from the Service Employees International Union. Stern advised Congress to create affordable alternatives to job-based health care that will provide more predictable costs to small business owners, workers and students. Under the new legislation, insurers should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of health status, age or other factors.

About 60 percent of employees are insured through their employers, but this hearing showed that employers are concerned about the high costs they will have to pay in the future in private health care costs. Carl Redman, from Innovation Construction and Bear Electric, said that Congress and small business owners need to band together and negotiate plans with insurance agencies to get smaller premiums and more affordable health care coverage.