Support Grows for Nelson Plan to Make Health Insurance Affordable

SUPPORT GROWS FOR NELSON PLAN TO MAKE HEALTH INSURANCE AFFORDABLE

I spent last week traveling through Nebraska, again, taking every possible opportunity to talk up my bill to make health insurance affordable. I've been promoting this since last fall and it's exciting to see the strong support among Nebraskans from border to border. Now, it's time to go national.

Within the next few weeks, my proposal, offered along with Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), will begin to wind its way through the legislative process. Senator Enzi is the Chairman of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. As that Committee begins the process, I believe our plan to reduce health care costs for America's small businesses will gain broad support among all Americans just as it has in Nebraska. I am optimistic this will happen because taxpayers everywhere are being smothered by the high cost of health insurance and are crying out for relief.

The concept of our plan has already received a boost from President George W. Bush when he delivered his State of the Union Address and promised to work to make it easier for small businesses to provide health care for their employees. He called on Congress to allow small business to band together to purchase health coverage giving them the same advantages, efficiencies and clout enjoyed by big businesses and labor unions.

This is exactly what our bill will do. It levels the playing field and allows business and trade associations to band their members together and offer group health coverage on a national or statewide basis.

What makes our plan unique is that it marks the first time that many different entities have all come together to find a workable solution. It provides much needed consumer protections by making sure state insurance commissioners retain their oversight ability to protect consumers, and it avoids disrupting the market by providing the same set of fair rules for everyone.

This plan recognizes that small businesses are at a disadvantage in providing health benefits for workers because they buy coverage for only a small number of workers at a time. As a result, small businesses pay much higher costs than large employers or labor unions for similar health benefits. Costs also go up over time when one employee experiences a major illness and forces large premium increases for everyone.

With so much working against them small businesses nationwide are less likely to offer health insurance plans. Take the case in Nebraska where there are 30,000 small businesses but 20,000 of them are not able to provide health insurance for their workers. If something isn't done, the situation could grow much worse.

I am confident that once my colleagues on Capitol Hill hear more about this plan they will agree with industry leaders like the National Association of Health Underwriters which says "this bill's commonsense approach to reform is refreshing, and it may be the most astute observation of today's market realities we've seen in many years."

http://bennelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=251936&&