Take Action NOW to Reduce Health Care Costs -- Senate to Take Action Week of May 1st

NAWBO has the opportunity in this Congress to make a real difference for our members on one of our focus issues – reducing the cost of health care insurance.

There are a number of proposals pending that could have a positive impact on health care cost reduction for all of our members regardless of the size or structure of our businesses.

NAWBO continues its successful coalition partnership with Women Impacting Public Policy, advocating for passage of federal legislation authorizing national pooling or group insurance plans for small businesses (previously described as association health plans or AHPs and now called small business health plans or SBHPs).

Through our joint efforts this year, a bill authorizing AHPs passed the House, HR 525 (see August 17, 2005 Public Policy Alert), and, for the first time ever in this long debate, a companion Senate bill, S1955, which addresses many of the concerns raised by earlier AHP legislation, has now been voted out of Senate committee.

Your active advocacy for reduced health care costs can make a difference in Washington right now.

Read the pros and cons, here, here and here, and then take action on S1955 by going to WIPP’s action page, and sending a message to your Senators asking that they vote yes on S1955.

In addition to continued advocacy for SBHPs with WIPP, this year the NAWBO Public Policy Council decided to focus advocacy efforts on tax incentives and other approaches to reducing health care costs. Accordingly, NAWBO is now a member of the Coalition for Affordable Health Coverage. CAHP advocates achieving health care cost reductions and affordability through tax incentives and other market-based approaches that will both reduce the cost of coverage and the number of uninsured. Find out more about the legislation now pending in Congress that the Coalition has identified as key to achieving these objectives.

Together we can make a difference in the cost of health care insurance for all of us. Please act now.

Very truly yours,

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga
Vice President for Public Policy

P.S. You will find more information on the pros and cons of various health care cost reduction proposals in earlier posts on the Blog. Please don't hestitate to join start or join a dialogue on these and other topics by posting a comment.