Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) says both the House and Senate health care reform bills will not be affordable for small businesses. (0:15)
By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service
Small business owners testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday in an attempt by the committee to find methods for reducing the ever-increasing health insurance costs facing small businesses.
“Today, I’m announcing my own investigation into the pricing practices of health insurance companies that sell policies to small businesses,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), HELP Committee Chairman. “Health insurance companies should open their books, explain to the American people why they support a health insurance market for small businesses that is so dysfunctional and so lacking in transparency.”
Harkin argued that the legislation presented by the Senate would create health insurance exchanges that pool small business together and increase competition, also making health insurance more transparent.
“Small businesses pay 18 percent more then large businesses for exactly same insurance plan and coverage. The [exact] same policy,” he said.
Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa, accepted a $5,000 deductible on services provided by a hospital in order to keep costs manageable for his small business. The deductible forces cancer patients covered by the policy to pay $2,500 out-of-pocket for a shot at a local hospital – or to drive to the next town in order to pay $25 for the same shot at a clinic. The insurance prices, he said, drive down the potential revenue that the town could have earned from treating the patient at the local hospital.
“We need more insurance competition in the rural marketplace by knocking down state cartels,” he said. “We need to know that a single health catastrophe will not bankrupt us and bring down everything we have worked for over the past 20 years.”
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Chair of the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, said that the cost of health care is rising rapidly and that insurance companies have little ability to address the issues.
“The challenge moving forward will be to overhaul the delivery system to promote prevention, quality and results-based care to encourage healthy lifestyles and to eliminate waste and fraud in the system,” said Praeger. “The difficulties in the small group market, as in the individual market, are ultimately the result of medical spending that has outstripped the ability of most Americans to pay for it.”
Says Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), “Small businesses want to provide the coverage. They know it’s good for their workers, good for moral and good for keeping. They just can’t afford [health insurance] any longer and that’s why we need a public option.” (00:11)
At a speech he delivered Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama made clear that “it is essential to make more credit available to smaller banks and community financial institutions that these businesses depend on”. (0:21)
Small Business Administrator Karen Mills explains how new guidebook will assist small businesses in taking appropriate steps to prepare for H1N1 outbreaks by providing information regarding telecommuting and hygiene protocol. (0:35)
By Laura Woodhead-Talk Radio News Service
Any health care reform legislation must include provisions to help small businesses, create more jobs and stimulate the economy, Senate Democrats said Wednesday.
“More than half of all Americans without health insurance are small business owners, their employees and their dependents,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) during a press conference. “We are trying to craft a reform that will make health coverage more stable, more secure and more affordable.”
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, said that the high costs of health care has been limiting the potential for U.S businesses to create more jobs.
“We are relying on these 27 million businesses to create more jobs, not less,” Landrieu said. “This health care expense is sitting on our Business Committee like a very wet, heavy heavy blanket suffocating their ability to grow and expand.”
Under the current drafts of health care reform legislation, small business risks would be pooled with other small businesses in order to stabilize the system through nationwide or statewide exchanges.
“Insurance companies would have to post their premiums side by side so that [employers] can comparison shop,” Durbin said. “[Small businesses] will have access to every private insurance company in [their] area.”
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said it was critical that small businesses were included in health care reform in order to stimulate the economy.
“[Small businesses] are the engines of our economy,” Lincoln stated. “We need to make sure that what we are doing is going to be helping them.”
Durbin admitted that forming the health care bill was a delicate process and that there would be “flash points” along the way, but urged his party’s colleagues to stay united in order to pass reform.
“[While] what is being produced by the bi-partisan group from the Finance Committee is not the bill that I would write, I have urged all my colleagues to stick with this process and realize that the first vote is not the last vote,” Durbin said. “The Republican [minority] want to filibuster us in to failure. We can’t let that happen.”
Maureen O ‘Conner, owner of Center Sheet Metal in Bronx, NY., says she would rather pay for her employees to have private health care coverage than have the government provide coverage for them. (0:23)
Steve Rosenfield, owner of By The Rockies LLC., says he’d like to see the atmosphere in Washington D.C. reflect support for small business owners. He says no to new taxes on small businesses. (0:27)
By Aaron Richardson – Talk Radio News Service
According to members of Congress, small business owners are the key to getting the economy back on it’s feet. Unfortunately, the proposed government run health care plan will levy a five percent payroll tax on small business owners who say this will cripple their finances and force many of them to shut down.
A roundtable discussion was held Tuesday in Washington D.C. to discuss the grievances small business owners have with government run health care.
“I would like to see an atmosphere out of Washington that says let’s help the small businessmen, not an atmosphere that says okay we have to pay for something let’s just hit the businessmen,” said Steve Rosenfield, owner of By The Rockies LLC.
“I’d have to put my employees on the government plan and I don’t want to. I want them to have the health care they like, go to the doctor they want to go to, get the tests that they need and I am willing to pay that no charge,” said Maureen O ‘Conner, owner of Center Sheet Metal in Bronx, NY.
House Committee on Small Business member Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) explained that many Democrats are not being totally straight with the American public.
“We keep hearing about how the Administration and Speaker Polosi’s plan is going to save the tax payers millions of dollars by spending trillions of tax payer dollars, and it is ridiculous. In Washington they call that ‘bending the curve,’ in Missouri they call it bending the truth,” said Graves.
By Mariko Lamb – Talk Radio News Service
GOP Congresswomen and small business owners joined together Friday to voice alarm about the dire consequences of Congress passing the current health care reform bill.
“The Democrat way is not reforming healthcare, it’s destroying it,” said Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.).
“We are very concerned about the way it jeopardizes the doctor-patient relationship, we’re concerned about the additional debt, the trillions in spending that will add to the children and grandchildren that come after us, but worst of all, it’s going to further hurt our small business owners at a time when our economy is in trouble,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.).
“President Obama’s prescription for healthcare reform for our nation is the wrong prescription for American families. We do not believe that we should put a federal bureaucrat between the patient and the doctor,” said Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.).
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Republicans have a plan that addresses costs, access, and insurance company accountability, but her Democratic counterparts will not listen. “We have been pushing forward our ideas, pushing forward our plans. It is unfortunate that the Democrat-led House is not wanting to make this a bipartisan goal of doing healthcare right,” she said.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) disputed President Obama’s claim that 47 million Americans lack healthcare. “There are no Americans who don’t have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare,” she said. “We do have about 7.5 million Americans who want to purchase health insurance who can not afford it,” she said, urging Congress to adopt a new plan for health care reform that won’t “destroy what is good about healthcare in this country” and “give the government control of our lives.”
