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Senate Begins Debate on Health Care Bill Targeting Small Business

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 21:04 CDT

WASHINGTON _ The Senate opened debate on a controversial health care bill Tuesday that Republican backers said would greatly expand access to insurance for small business employees.

But the legislation _ a longtime priority of Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo. _ faced staunch opposition from Democrats, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and a bevy of interest groups.

Patient advocates, consumer groups and 41 state attorneys general said the bill would undermine key state-mandated health care protections by letting the insurers opt out of state mandates that guarantee certain coverage.

At issue is a measure that would allow trade associations, such as the Chamber of Commerce or the National Restaurant Association, to band together to offer insurance to their members' employees.

"The problem of small business health care costs is really at the core of a lot of what's troubling us with health care," said Talent. "We can solve a big chunk of the problem" with this bill.

Talent has long championed the measure, both in Congress and as a lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business.

The federation gathered thousands of signatures from Missouri business owners on a petition supporting the measure.

In a news release Tuesday, the business group said the bill "will level the playing field and give participating small businesses the same buying power as Fortune 500 companies and unions by allowing them to join together across state lines through trade and professional associations to purchase affordable health benefits."

The measure has passed the House several times but has died in the Senate. This time, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the key sponsor, made some concessions before Tuesday's debate began.

Additionally, Enzi, Talent and others signaled that they were open to tweaking the bill more by preserving some state-passed patient protections, among other potential changes.

In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Talent said there was no reason not to test the proposal: "It costs the taxpayers nothing. It's not a government program. It is empowering small business people to do what big business people already can do."

But Democrats and dozens of patient advocacy groups, such as the American Diabetes Association and the American Pediatric Association, say the bill would do more harm than good. They say it would undermine the states' ability to regulate insurance plans and pre-empt hard-won state consumer protections that guarantee coverage of diabetes treatment, cancer screenings, maternity care and a host of other services.

"The Enzi bill will take away critical protections that you already have," Durbin said at a news conference Tuesday with cancer survivors, diabetes patients and others opposing the bill. "We would step back into darkness for so many families."

Durbin and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., hope to offer an alternative bill that would allow small business to pool together to offer insurance without letting them opt out of state mandates that guarantee certain coverage.

The plan is modeled after the insurance program offered to federal employees, including members of Congress, and it would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management.

"If it's good enough for members of Congress, it's good enough for American families," Durbin said.

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Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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