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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > June 9, 2008
Congressmen to unveil 'breakthrough' health care legislation
Published June 9, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
A bipartisan group of Congressmen, including U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse), will join a broad coalition of interests to unveil "breakthrough legislation" designed to make health care insurance more available and affordable for the 47.1 million employees of the nation's 5.8 million small businesses and for 14.1 million self-employed individuals Tuesday.
Kind will be joined by fellow Congressmen Phil English (R-Pa.), John Barrow (D-Ga.), Bill Young (R-Fla.), Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), Tom Allen (D-Maine), Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), Chris Shays (R-Conn.), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), along with representatives from the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), National Association of Realtors (NAR), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
The announcement will take place at a Capitol Hill press conference on Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. (CST).
Kind said the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP Act) would lower health care costs for small businesses by allowing them to band together to obtain lower premiums, provide tax credits for small business owners to offset contributions to employee premiums and ban health status rating in order to protect businesses from large rate increases simply because one employee gets sick.
This bill brings business and labor together toward a common goal of reducing health care costs for small businesses so that more of them can offer coverage to their employees, Kind said.
