HEATHCARE
ALLIANCE AIMS TO PUSH THE DEBATE
By
Todd Stottlemyer
Many people get frustrated by gridlock whether it's traffic or political.
Of the two, the political kind has far worse effects on our economy.
Four leading organizations have decided to do something about it.
The
National Federation of Independent Business, AARP, the Service Employees
International Union and the Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs of
leading American companies, have come together in a coalition called
Divided We Fail.
Collectively,
we represent the 25 million small businesses in this country as well
as big business, consumers and labor groups, including employees and
dependents, totaling more than 53 million people.
We
seek to engage the American public, elected officials and the business
community to find broad based bipartisan solutions to address what has
become a national crisis, especially for America's job creators. This
crises is health care and its impact on our nation's long term economic
competitiveness.
Healthy,
growing small businesses are vital to our economy. They generate half
of America's GDP, and create two-thirds of tAmerica's net new jobs.
As such, the business of small business is good. Yet, of the estimated
46 million Americans without health care, more than 27 million are small
business owners, employees or dependents of small businesses.
Less
than half of small businesses can afford to offer a health insurance
plan as a benefit. Fewer, about 30 percent, can afford to offer retirement
plans. This is simply not acceptable.
For
20 straight years, small businesses have said that health care costs
are their number one issue. But things haven't gotten any better. In
fact, they're getting worse. We must find a way to fundamentally alter
the forces driving costs or our efforts will be for naught.
The
time has come to address this problem in a real and lasting way. And
no discussion of health care should take place without America's job
creators at the table. We believe this coalition will spur our nation's
political leaders to start working together to take on the threats to
America's health care and our overall economic competitiveness.
It's
past time to address the challenges that small businesses face in obtaining
affordable health care for themselves and their employees. We will do
nothing less than commit every resource available to fight for a health
care system that makes affordable, quality health care available to
everyone.
If
we truly want to provide coverage for all while protecting our economy,
the focus must be on small business' biggest concern-the cost of health
insurance. Reduce costs, and we can increase coverage. We also need
a national solution, not piecemeal, state-by-state attempts.
Our
research shows that for small business owners the broad principles of
the solution include:
- Increasing
competition among insurance providers by breaking down the barriers
that exist for selling insurance to small businesses, such as market
pooling;
- Opening
markets to provide a wide variety of choices of insurers and coverage
plans;
- Providing
complete transparency in the costs of treatments and the outcomes
of those treatments so that we can become better educated consumers
of health care in order to can make informed decisions;
- Making
health insurance portable from job to job which also would encourage
more would be entrepreneurs to follow their dreams and start a business
without worrying about
losing coverage.
Our
goal is to widely share this information and bring the health care debate
to the ears of Congress and the President. Through Divided We Fail,
as well as through our own grassroots mobilization and communication
efforts, we will do everything in our power to guarantee that small
business owners - America's job creators, risk takers, community leaders
- are heard loudly and clearly.
Todd
Stottlemyer is president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent
Business in Washington, D.C.
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