Whoremaster 101 Lesson Plan Of The Day;Pass The Small Business Fairness Act

The National Assn. of  REALTORS® steps to the head of the class as it cheers the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education and the Workforce for approving the Small Business Health Fairness Act. The legislation is one of NAR's top priorities. On the face of it, "lower cost health insurance" is a laudable objective. Where are the savings really coming from? There will be lower administrative fees, but that only applies to 10 - 20% of the total cost of the plan. The balance will be savings achieved through reduced benefits. Thoughtful and reasoned opposition to the bill dates back to the first time it was introduced. The following is the text of a letter written to Congressional leadership in 2003 on behalf of The National Conference of State Legislators:

On behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) I am writing to express our opposition to H.R. 660, the Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2003. Despite sincere efforts to make improvements to the legislation to address state concerns, our key issues remain unresolved.

This legislation would:

1. preempt state laws that provide critical protections to consumers and fails to replace them with adequate federal protections;

2. destabilize the state small group insurance market, undermining previously enacted state and federal insurance reforms, and reintroducing practices that had been banned by those laws; and

3. provide insufficient resources to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to perform the necessary regulatory and oversight duties associated with regulating health insurers, providing fertile soil for unscrupulous entities to flourish unfettered by state laws, state lawmakers and state regulators.

We are mindful of the extreme hardship many small businesses face as they try to provide affordable and high quality health care coverage for their workers. NCSL remains committed to working with you and other members of Congress to find solutions that will provide high quality, affordable health care coverage for employees of small businesses and for all of our constituents.

Senator Angela Monson
Oklahoma State Senate
President, NCSL

Charles Scott
Wyoming State Senate
Chair, NCSL Standing Committee on Health