NFIB Statement: Senate Health Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 19, 2009 —
Susan Eckerly, senior vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s leading small business association, issued the following statement in reaction to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:
“Small business can’t support a proposal that does not address their No. 1 problem: the unsustainable cost of healthcare. With unemployment at a 26-year high and small business owners struggling to simply keep their doors open, this kind of reform is not what we need to encourage small businesses to thrive.
“We oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act due to the amount of new taxes, the creation of new mandates, and the establishment of new entitlement programs. There is no doubt all these burdens will be paid for on the backs of small business. It’s clear to us that, at the end of the day, the costs to small business more than outweigh the benefits they may have realized.
“Small businesses have been clear about their needs in health reform; they have been working for solutions for more than two decades. They have a unique place in this debate because of the exceptional challenges they face. They experience the most volatile premium increases, are the most cost-shifted market, see the most tax increases and have the least competitive marketplace. For all these reasons, they especially need reform, but these reforms can’t add to their cost of doing business. The impact from these new taxes, a rich benefit package that is more costly than what they can afford today, a new government entitlement program, and a hard employer mandate equals disaster for small business.
“We are disappointed that, after so many months of discussion, small business could be left with the status quo or something even worse. Unless extreme measures are taken to reverse the course Congress is on, small business will have no choice but to hope for another chance at real reform down the road.
“Congress is running out of opportunities to prove to small business that they are serious about helping our nation’s job creators. We are hopeful that a robust bipartisan debate will produce a bill that small businesses see as a solution and not another government burden.”
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