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New Hampshire Senators Share Solutions for Small Group Health Insurance Reform With Pennsylvania Lawmakers

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

HARRISBURG, Penn., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Two leaders of the New Hampshire State Senate offered Pennsylvania lawmakers their insight today on how to pass a meaningful law that can increase health insurance choices for the vast majority of Pennsylvania small businesses.

Two years ago, New Hampshire's small business community was in a tailspin. A law that allowed medical underwriting had been passed and many of New Hampshire's small business owners had to drop health benefits leaving many working adults uninsured.

Luckily for New Hampshire, the newly elected Governor, John Lynch and two state senators, a Republican and a Democrat, led the effort to repeal the law. In turn, new legislation was enacted that banned medical underwriting for small businesses.

The Pennsylvanians for Small Group Health Insurance Reform (PaSGR) coalition brought those two senators, Ted Gatsas (R) and Margaret Hassan (D) to Harrisburg to share their story. The visit provided a unique opportunity for Pennsylvanians to learn how another state has successfully passed legislation that makes health insurance more accessible for all small businesses.

Alongside Sen. Robert Wonderling (R) of Montgomery County and Rep. Curt Schroder (R) of Chester County, both authors of bills that ban medical underwriting in Pennsylvania, Senate Bill 671 and House Bill 1240, the New Hampshire senators spoke about their bipartisan alliance that eased the burden on their state's most valuable economic asset, small businesses.

"In New Hampshire more than 85 percent of the businesses have fewer than 50 employees working for them and 65 percent of those businesses are made up of fewer than 10 employees," said Gatsas. "The truth is medical underwriting of small businesses had a disastrous effect on our state, its small business owners and its economy."

The previous law showed immediate negative economic impact on the state's economy. Census Bureau reports showed that the number of uninsured New Hampshire residents grew by 21,000 to 152,000 in 2004.

The overall message from the visiting senators was simply that change was needed to protect small businesses and political differences must be pushed aside to create meaningful reform.

"I strongly urge the Pennsylvania General Assembly to work together. Democrats and Republicans working together can return stability and fairness to the small group health insurance market," said Sen. Hassan. "We do not pretend to be experts on Pennsylvania. However, we do know that much like our state of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania's small businesses deserve a stable and fair marketplace in which to purchase and provide health insurance for their workers."

Senator Robert Wonderling and Representative Curt Schroder again urged their legislative colleagues to support their legislative solutions and vote them out of committee for a full vote in the General Assembly.

"We are here today because we continue to be concerned that Pennsylvania workers will become uninsured as employers face double digit increases in their health insurance costs," Wonderling said. "I also share Representative Schroder's sense of urgency that we need to act soon to prohibit the discriminatory practice of medical underwriting so all of our citizens will have access to affordable health care."

"We should not allow the process to get bogged down with large insurance companies on either side of this issue. The bottom line is this issue is about small businesses, which are a critical cog in the economic engine of Pennsylvania," added Rep. Schroder. "We must protect and enable them to be truly competitive."

About House Bill 1240 and Senate Bill 671

House Bill 1240 and Senate Bill 671 reform the market to make it more user-friendly so that small businesses are better equipped to provide health coverage for their workers. The bills will stabilize health insurance costs for small companies so that they are less likely to face sudden and significant rate increases due to unforeseen events, such as an employee diagnosed with cancer or giving birth to a seriously ill newborn. The reform bills also work to expand the choice of health insurance for all small companies.

About PaSGR

Pennsylvanians for Small Group Health Insurance Reform is a grassroots advocacy coalition. The coalition was formed to fix the small business health insurance market in Pennsylvania; helping many small businesses obtain more affordable and accessible healthcare coverage.

The coalition is dedicated to the passage of meaningful reform legislation that uniformly regulates insurers and eliminates medical underwriting in the small group market, a rating practice that pushes the sick out of affordable health insurance.

For more information on the coalition, visit http://www.pasmallgroupreform.org/ or call (866) 823-0893.

Pennsylvanians for Small Group Health Insurance Reform

CONTACT: Scott Henry of Pennsylvanians for Small Group Health InsuranceReform, +1-617-894-6244, info@pasmallgroupreform.org

Web site: http://www.pasmallgroupreform.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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