Durbin: SEHBP Would Make Health Insurance Affordable for Small Businesses

DURBIN: SEHBP WOULD MAKE HEALTH INSURANCE AFFORDABLE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

At a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing today, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said that a bill they've introduced would offer small businesses more affordable health care choices for their employees without sacrificing important benefits like diabetes supplies and mammograms.

"The high cost of health insurance is the top concern for small businesses in Illinois and across America," said Durbin. "With today's coverage options, small businesses are unfairly forced to make a choice between taking care of their employees and paying the bills that keep their doors open. Our Small Employers Health Benefits Program will give employees of small businesses the same kinds of health care choices Members of Congress already have, for less than they pay now, while making it affordable for owners to provide it."

"The crisis of ever escalating health care costs is not going away, and in fact, it's getting worse," said Lincoln. "Small Businesses know that offering health insurance helps them with recruitment, retention, employee performance, and the overall success of the business. This is something I firmly believe Congress should address right now. Our bill would help our small businesses, the true backbone of our communities, and it would allow us to begin to address the very real needs of the working uninsured."

Both Democratic Senators said their bill titled the "The Small Employers Health Benefits Program Act of 2006," (SEHBP) would allow small businesses with up to 100 employees to band together for lower health care prices by pooling their purchasing power and spreading their risk over a large number of participants. The two Senators have worked on their SEHBP proposal together since 2003 and said that their bill is modeled after the successful "Federal Employees Health Benefits Program" which has provided health care benefits to federal workers for over 40 years.

Durbin and Lincoln touted their bill at a Finance Committee hearing today examining various approaches to small business health insurance. A competing plan would bypass state-mandated coverage for many important health needs and allow insurance companies to define benefits packages.

SEHBP, which combines the best of what the government can do with the best that the private sector can do, has been endorsed by and array of organizations including: the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Osteopathic Association, the Consumers Union, the Federation of American Hospitals, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Small Business Majority, the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, the National Mental Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Women's Law Center.

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=253650&&