Chamber Welcomes Senate Effort to Consider Small Business Health Plans

WASHINGTON, D.C.—United States Chamber of Commerce Executive Director of Health Care Policy Kate Sullivan Hare welcomed Senate efforts to bring affordable health coverage choices to small businesses through Small Business Health Plans.

"We welcome Senate HELP Committee Chairman Enzi's commitment to move legislation that attempts to bridge the differences that for 11 years has prevented serious Senate deliberation of health plans to pool small businesses together to offer uniform plans across state lines," said Sullivan Hare.

"We are pleased to see progress on this much-needed legislation, and stand ready to work with the chairman to move this bill through the Senate as quickly as possible. However, the Chamber remains committed to the ERISA framework of federal uniformity embodied in S. 406, the Small Business Health Fairness Act, which has enabled large employers to offer self-insured health plans covering benefits tailored to their workforce for more than three decades. Specifically, the employer community as a whole is concerned that Chairman Enzi's proposal codifies the practice of benefit mandates that are enacted in state capitals, rather than evaluating benefits on the basis of evidence of clinical value balanced against efficacy and efficiency, which could set a troubling precedent," Sullivan Hare concluded.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

# # #

05-178