NFIB

New Year, Renewed Hope: NFIB is working to make 2006 the year small business gets a break on health insurance
01/ 23/ 2006

Desperate for affordable health insurance for your small business? You (and your employees) may not have to go another year without it. After nearly a decade of debate and deadlock, Small-Business Health Plan legislation, which would allow employers to join together through trade and professional associations to purchase health insurance at a better bargaining rate, is seeing some action in the U.S. Senate. Up until now, the Senate has been the consistent stumbling block to real reform.

Latest action: Late last year, the chairman of the Senate committee on health-care legislation, Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, introduced S. 1955, The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005. Dubbed by Sen. Enzi as “a compromise approach,” the bill blends a modified version of S. 406 (the Snowe-Talent bill that has already passed the House) with some initiatives intended to streamline the varying state health insurance regulations. Sen. Enzi is making this concession in order to move the bill through his committee and onto the Senate floor.

Where NFIB stands: NFIB still supports S. 406, but offers qualified support to Sen. Enzi’s bill because it does contain some provisions that would help reduce the cost of providing health-care coverage for small businesses. Don’t miss a chance to tell your senators that you support S. 406. Send an e-mail to your senator in just a few clicks at http://www.NFIB.com/healthcare.

Quick Stat: 63 percent of all uninsured workers are employed by businesses with fewer than 100 employees

Source: Employee Benefits Research Institute

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