Whoremaster Lesson Plan 102:Send NAR President To Spin Congress On Health Plan

Al Mansell, president of the National Assn. of REALTORS® testified on Capitol Hill this week and  urged the Senate to pass the Small Business Health Fairness Act to allow small businesses and self-employed workers to band together through a trade or professional association to negotiate lower health insurance costs for participants. Said Mansell:

“For the most part, REALTORS® are small-business people or independent contractors who struggle to find quality, affordable health care for their employees and families. Small business health plans will give small-business and self-employed workers the same right to quality, affordable health insurance as corporate employees and union members. REALTORS® are doing everything we can to see that small business health plan legislation is enacted this year.”

Here's what the Congressional Budget Office has to say:

“ …about 600,000 more people (including employees and their dependents) would be insured through small employers than would be insured under current law. By 2008, about 7.5 million people would obtain health insurance through association health plans. However, under current law, most of those AHP enrollees would have been insured in the state-regulated market rather than being uninsured. CBO also estimates that about 10,000 people would lose coverage in response to rising premiums in the small-group market.”

CBO also warns us that far from reducing health expenses, this bill will increase health care costs because it will encourage cherry picking of the most desirable employees, leaving the more expensive employers in the current system. CBO concluded that AHPs primarily will compete by offering less generous benefit packages and thus, reducing coverage for 7 million workers and families. And those who remain covered by non-AHP insurance will pay increased costs to compensate for those who are siphoned off into AHPs.

A 2003 study by Mercer Consultants, commissioned by National Small Business United, made even more dire predictions. Mercer found that AHP legislation would increase the number of the uninsured by 1 million as employers in the non-AHP market dropped coverage due to premium increases. Health insurance premiums in the non-AHP market were estimated to rise 23% due to the exodus of healthier firms to non-regulated AHPs.

Rather than expanding health coverage and health services; it is going to lead to the reduction of health coverage for 7 million Americans who will lose the right to vital medical coverage such as OB/GYN and pediatrician services, cervical, colon, mammography and prostate cancer screening and treatment, maternity benefits and well-care child services, and diabetes treatment.

More than 1300 local and national organizations oppose this bill, including the National Governors Assn., the Republican Governors Assn., Democratic Governors Assn., 41 state Attorneys General, the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, National Small Business United, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the Assn. of Health Insurance Plans, as well as hundreds of labor, consumer, and business groups.

Comments

[Andrew Spark]

In my view we spend more on our healthcare programs, yet the poor are still very sick and the old still suffer in old age. Our social programs are not achieving their results and that should give policymakers pause about the decisions they are making in regards to healthcare.