Congressman Discusses Health Care with NFIB Members
On Friday, May 3 US Rep. John Joyce met with small business owners in Tyrone, PA. Congressman Joyce participated in an NFIB Small Business Challenge through a roundtable discussion with NFIB members at Reclamere, a data destruction and data security company in Blair County.
One of the prevailing topics of the meeting was health insurance. As a doctor who has practiced medicine for over 25 years, Rep. Joyce told NFIB members that health care was the main reason that he ran for Congress. Joyce explained how health care costs have skyrocketed, and for the first time in 25 years, he and his wife had to consider asking employees to contribute to their health insurance. They were able to recalculate some expenses and were lucky enough to avoid employee contributions. Many small business owners are not that fortunate. Some of the members at Friday’s roundtable discussion told Rep. Joyce that rising health care costs were a big concern for their businesses. Joyce responded by saying that Congress needs a plan to address the problem, Congress needs to have discussions and members of Congress need to be willing to listen as well as talk.
Joe Harford, President, and Founder of Reclamere welcomed Congressman Joyce as well as State Sen. Judy Ward and State Rep. Jim Gregory. Harford said that he hoped to build a strong relationship with the freshman Congressman. The Small Business Challenge is a national campaign that invites lawmakers to spend a day “on the job” at a small business in their community and allows them to experience firsthand the challenges small-business owners face, including day-to-day management, compliance, and tax issues.
