Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2004 - Continued
SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH FAIRNESS ACT OF 2004-CONTINUED
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Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, in America we have 44 million people today without health insurance. We are the only industrialized nation in the world where people go without health insurance. And who are they? It is the folks that are trying to do the right thing and work. Unfortunately, they are working jobs with no benefits.
Nearly 80 percent of the uninsured are the working poor and often work in small businesses. They have jobs and are trying to do the right thing, but cannot afford a policy, an insurance policy, for themselves or for their families.
Each weekend as I go back home to Arkansas, I meet more and more small business owners, and I understand this because my wife and I are small business owners. We provide health insurance for our employees back home. And just as it is for us, I learn it is for so many small business owners across this Nation. They are struggling to be able to continue to afford the premiums, not only for their employees but for themselves as well.
Association Health Plans, quite frankly, are not the answer. It would do little to help the 44 million uninsured Americans. In fact, Mercer Consulting analyzed the Association Health Plans proposal and found that the number of the uninsured would increase by over 1 million as a result of coverage losses among workers in small firms and their dependents.
I support the Kind substitute that truly addresses the problem of the uninsured in this country. It is fully paid for. It will not preempt State law, and it offers meaningful and immediate help to small businesses.
The substitute legislation would create a Small Employer Health Benefits Plan similar to the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan and would offer coverage to all small businesses with fewer than 100 workers.
This legislation works with existing State laws and does not preempt State laws regarding health care coverage. Also, this legislation goes far beyond vague words and empty promises and actually commits Federal funds to aid small businesses in offering insurance to its employees by offering to help subsidize the cost of insurance for small businesses to the tune of 50 percent of the cost of the premiums.
I urge my colleagues to support the Kind substitute and oppose H.R. 4281.