Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday the front page of The New York Times reported a survey of insurance brokers across America who have now predicted that the increase in insurance rates for small businesses in 2010 will be 15 to 23 percent. Last year it was 7 to 12 percent. So if your premium as a small business for a worker was $4,500 in 2008, it will be $5,500 in 2010. That is the Halloween surprise for small businesses in America today. There is no group in America that takes a harder hit than the self-employed and small group markets who have no mechanism to pool their risk that large employers and people in the Congress benefit from, as members of the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan.

This bill will create a national purchasing exchange so that the risk-takers in America will actually have the opportunity to provide and buy affordable health insurance for themselves and their employees. It is for America's capitalism and for America's entrepreneurs that the need to fix this market is the most critical, and that is why it is time to stop listening to the voices of ``no'' and move forward with real health care reform that will make America's economy grow and be viable.

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