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7/23/2009
Why health care reform bill is bad for business
[From Bill Welch, President and CEO, Fox Cities Chamber] The Fox Cities Chamber has expended a great deal of effort tracking Healthcare Reform Legislation pending in Congress. Both the House and Senate now have bills under consideration that would have dramatic impacts upon our all of our business members, both large and small. I am writing today to urge you to take the time to write our Congressmen and Senators to urge them to oppose the Kennedy Bill in the Senate and the Tri-Committee Bill in the House.
What is wrong with the bills under consideration?
- Basically, the bills seek to establish a huge new bureaucracy to manage the health insurance system in America.
- They would create a new “Public Option” that would quickly lead to the demise of private insurers—creating the kind of single-payer system that exists in Canada and Great Britain.
- They would force companies to purchase a benefit plan prescribed by the federal government and require that the insurance be purchased through a new national central insurance exchange.
- They would require many smaller companies who today don’t provide insurance for employees to do so, or pay a fee equal to 8 percent of their payroll—a job killing provision in the midst of the economic downturn
- They would impose onerous new taxes on most small firms, by dramatically increasing taxes on people who file taxes with incomes in excess of $250,000—most of whom are actually small businesses filing as Subchapter S Corporations
- And they would, according to reports released this week by the CBO, significantly increase the growth rate for healthcare spending, contradicting one of the major arguments offered by those sponsoring this legislation
We do need healthcare reform, but reform that will actually produce positive outcomes. We are telling legislators&mdash:
- We support an approach that would require consumers to take more personal responsibility for their health
- We support an approach that emphasizes wellness and prevention
- We support an approach that provides tax incentives for employers and individuals to secure necessary coverage
- We support an approach that would provide improved access to insurance through Modified Community Rating, whereby, health status would not be used in underwriting, but age and geography could be considered
- And we support an approach that would provide incentives for providers who can demonstrate greater efficiencies, better outcomes and lower costs
The bills under consideration both fail to adequately address the concerns we have. If you believe that it is important to reform our healthcare system, but do so in a way that will help employers and consumers, not create new burdens that will stifle economic growth, please take the time to write our Congressional representatives today. Tell them you oppose the Tri-Committee Bill in the House and Kennedy Bill in the Senate. Tell them to put these bills on hold and seriously consider changes that will make them acceptable.
COMMENTS
First, it is my guess that the Fox Cities Chamber has numerous members from the insurance industry, and the last thing in the world the industry wants is health care reform that causes them to lose profits.
But these profits are coming from premiums paid by their other members, so why the chambers around the country are not behind a single payer system that would eliminate health care costs for their members is a bit puzzling.
Well, not really. I've learned to follow the money.
But health care should be made a part of our nation's infrastructure and paid for through personal taxes rather than burdening our corporations with a cost that makes them uncompetitive with products from other countries. A single-payer system will give us that and save $400 billion per year in the process.
Jack Lohman (Thu Jul 23 07:35:49 2009)
Wake up Bill. Its a new world. I spent ten years in the Fox Cities, its old world style is defunct in the wat the globe operates. Much of the insurance including Human who just lost a 9 BB contract cant face reality, its about you do. The billions spent on a useless war in the middle east could very well have provided the americans will health care. Its a trade off and you seem to be stuck on the wrong side.
Belleville (Fri Jul 24 10:56:59 2009)
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