During a Senate Health & Human Services Committee hearing examining the Texas health insurance market, NFIB Assistant State Director Sarah Horn testified on behalf of small business owners in the state, urging lawmakers to consider reforms to reel in health insurance costs for Main Street employers.

During her testimony, Horn said:

“Increasingly small businesses don’t see health insurance as something that they want to provide, but as something they need to provide. They’re recruiting from the same talent pools as larger businesses and to be competitive they need to offer competitive compensation packages.”

Specifically, Horn identified two bills introduced during the previous session that would help to make health insurance more affordable.

SB 1581 introduced by Sen. Paul Bettencourt created a process to review new mandates before health mandates would be heard or passed. This review process would provide information about where costs would be increased and to whom.

SB 605 introduced by Sen. Drew Springer/HB 1001 Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, would create mandate lite coverage options. These options would have all of the basic protections of insurance coverage, without being responsible for mandates that go beyond federal requirements.

CLICK HERE to watch Horn’s testimony (which begins at ~5:40:10)