Mikulski Fights To Make Health Insurance More Affordable For Small Business Owners
Mikulski Fights To Make Health Insurance More Affordable For Small Business Owners
"We must make it easier for all Americans to have affordable healthcare at any age."
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, joined her colleagues at a hearing this morning to address healthcare for small businesses. The Senator remains concerned about the burden placed on small businesses that provide healthcare for their employees and is continuing her fight to better assist them.
"We need to be talking about improving healthcare for all Americans at any age and making the care more affordable for patients as well as employers. American families are feeling stressed and strained, facing the ballooning cost of healthcare," said Senator Mikulski. "Healthcare coverage is one of the most important issues facing Americans who are worried they will lose coverage, and won't be able to afford the care they need."
Today, the HELP Committee considered the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, which was introduced by Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wy.). Senator Mikulski is critical of this bill, which makes major changes to state insurance regulation and threatens to negatively impact the most vulnerable employees.
"I commend Senator Enzi for tackling such a tough issue, but this bill would ultimately end up increasing the cost of healthcare coverage for those that need it most," said Senator Mikulski. "This proposal eliminates important healthcare coverage protections that only exist in the states and would allow insurance plans to ignore the benefit coverage that states have decided were most important for their residents."
Senator Mikulski joined more than 20 of her Democratic Senate colleagues yesterday in introducing the Small Employers Health Benefits Program (SEHBP), which gives small businesses affordable choices among private health insurance plans and expands access to healthcare coverage for their employees. The SEHBP would allow small businesses across America to band together for lower healthcare prices by pooling their purchasing power and spreading their risk over a large number of participants. Employers would qualify for an annual tax credit to partially offset contributions on behalf of low-income employees.
The Democratic members of the HELP Committee introduced a substitute bill at today's hearing based on the SEHBP.
http://mikulski.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=252301