With bi-partisanship being the new thing for President Barack Obama, it somehow seems appropriate that Republican congressman do the same.
Below is a press release from 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo with “Bitartisan” in its title:
Rep. Manzullo Offers Bipartisan Proposals to Help Make
Health Care More Affordable, Accessible to Americans
WASHINGTON – As President Obama huddles with Congressional leaders on health care today, Congressman Don Manzullo suggested two bills that would be a great bipartisan starting point for health care reform.
Manzullo, former Chairman of the House Small Business Committee, said nearly 60 percent of America’s 47 million uninsured are self employed or work for small employers who can’t afford to provide them and their families affordable health care coverage. Manzullo suggested the following two bipartisan bills would go a long way to reduce the cost of health insurance for small employers so they can afford to provide coverage for their employees and families:
- HR 2360, the Small Business Health Options Program Act of 2009 (SHOP Act), would allow small employers to purchase health insurance at reduced group rates through national associations while still following state rules. Manzullo is one of 60 bipartisan cosponsors of HR 2360, which also enjoys support from the liberal Service Employees International Union (SEIU), AARP, and the conservative National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). A companion bill in the Senate was authored by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and enjoys similar bipartisan support.
- HR 1470, the Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act of 2009, would let small employers deduct their health insurance costs from their Social Security and Medicare tax liabilities, giving them the same deduction as large employers. The self-employed pay on average $12,106 annually for family health care coverage, and H.R. 1470 would save them $1,852 a year, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Manzullo is one of 48 bipartisan co-sponsors of HR 1470.
Don Manzullo
“If President Obama and Congressional leaders are truly interested in bipartisan health care reform, they should start with two bills – HR 2360 and HR 1470 – that already enjoy bipartisan support and can be passed through Congress and signed into law quickly,” Manzullo said.
“These bills would dramatically reduce the costs of health insurance for small employers so they can better afford to provide coverage for their employees and their families. And they will reduce the rolls of the uninsured without increasing taxes, killing jobs, forcing Americans into a government-run program, and burdening our children and grandchildren with even more debt.”
Manzullo also supports the following additional changes to America’s health care system:
- Reforming our out-of-control medical liability system – Medical malpractice insurance continues to surge, skyrocketing health care costs and forcing doctors and other medical professionals to practice “defensive medicine,” which entails ordering costly and often unnecessary tests to cover all the bases from lawsuits. Manzullo is a cosponsor of the HEALTH Act (H.R. 1086) that would fully compensate victims for medical injuries but place reasonable caps on punitive and non-economic damages that often inflate the awards and contribute to out-of-control liability and health care costs.
- Expanding tax-free availability to Health Savings Accounts — HSAs allow small business owners to offer more affordable high-deductible health insurance plans to their employees and make tax-deductible contributions to employee savings accounts to allow their employees to build equity and assume personal control of their health care needs. Congress should increase the tax deductibility for these insurance plans.
- Preserving high-quality health care through America’s community health clinics – Manzullo supports continued funding of our community health clinic system, which provides high-quality health care to America’s low-income families. Manzullo has been a strong supporter of Rockford’s Crusader Clinic, which serves more than 40,000 needy patients in northern Illinois each year.
- Creating refundable tax credits to help low-income Americans purchase health insurance – Low-income children are already covered through the federal SCHIP program, and Manzullo supports refundable tax credits to help low-income adults purchase health insurance.
Mr. Manzullo advocates the formation of national small business associations for small businesses to purchase health insurance. These associations already exist (and have existed for years) and I can tell you from experience, they don’t offer any advantages. Health insurance plans under current national associations for small businesses have expensive premiums with double digit, yearly increases, and like all plans for individuals/small businesses, they deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, no matter how minor the condition is. The insurance companies in these plans are typically located outside of Illinois which makes it even more difficult to get the insurance company to pay bills! Unlike a large company with an HR department, these associations do not act as an advocate on your behalf if you have an issue with a claim. While I like some of Mr Manzullo’s ideas, he is still not addressing an underlying issue that most sole proprietors/small businesses face…pre-existing conditions! He can offer all the plans in the world and all types of tax deductions, but if you or any family member has any type of pre-existing condition, the ability to procure health insurance is limited or impossibly expensive. If you are self-employed and have health insurance, you better pray that you stay healthy because if you don’t, you can’t shop around for a better deal or switch insurance providers because you are now in the pool of the un-insurable. We are in this situation right now…we can’t shop around for a more affordable health insurance plan for our family because of a (relatively minor/treatable) pre-existing condition of one of our family members. Now we are at the mercy of our health insurance company as they jack up our insurance premiums each year! Small business associations and tax deductions don’t address these issues. I think the best solution for this never-ending debate on health care is for Mr. Manzullo to propose and fight for a bill that would eliminate free health insurance coverage for politicians. If our nation’s leaders had to go out and procure their own health insurance for their families and face what many self-insured/small businesses have to face – the never-ending, bipartisan healthcare reform debate would probably end pretty quick. Wishful thinking.
Capping malpractice suits at $250K and eliminating the abuse of the system by illegal aliens will save $1 TRILLON annually. Yet, we never hear anything about these options. The only thing that is bipartisan about this is the political contributions from the bottom feeding, ambulance chasing lawyers.
The only solution to the health care debate is a constitutional amendment declaring that quality health care is a right of all citizens, and requiring the government to fund it. The same health care for everyone, including all government employees. Yes people, I’m talking about a universal health care system run by the government and paid for by taxes.
The facts of the matter are that we pay nearly twice as much for healthcare as other developed countries that have tax financed universal care, yet they live longer and are generally healthier. We pay the most, yet rank 37th for quality of care.
I know most American’s balk at this system. That’s because two-thirds of them have an employer based plan, and only a small portion of that cost is passed on to some them in the form of a deduction from their checks. They don’t see the actual cost that their employers are paying, and don’t realize that it’s really their money being spent. If your boss didn’t have to pay $15,000 a year to insure your family, he might have a little more to pay you!
I have been a small business owner for 30 years. For years I’ve had to balance the cost of rising health insurance premiums with benefit reductions and smaller pay raises. Finally, I had to drop my small group plan all together because the insurance company raised my rates 45%. I simply can’t afford $800 per month per employee. That’s per person, not per family. If you work for a small business struggling in this economy, you’ve probably seen the costs being shifted to you. If you’re over 50 and trying to find good, affordable health insurance on your own, forget about it. You’ve probably been forced to go without, or take a policy that only provides disaster coverage.
If you don’t like paying for health care for those who can’t afford it, here’s a news flash. You all ready are! Some of the cost is rolled into the premiums that we pay now. The rest is being paid by Medicare and Medicaid. The cost of healthcare for the uninsured is even greater because these people are forced to go to hospitals and emergency rooms to get treatment that could be provided in a doctor’s office or clinic. And then there’s the tens of thousands of people that die each year due because they have no health care.
The need for malpractice lawsuits would be greatly reduced or eliminated. The injured parties would all ready have access to any additional medical treatment and rehabilitation needed, and you could limit damages to actual costs incurred by families that need to provide continued care for the injured.
You can elimate the problem of healthcare for “illegal immigrant workers” (code for Mexicans) by: 1. Admit that they’re all ready here and most of them are very hard working people. They are doing jobs that we’re too old to do, and that most of our young people would never consider doing. 2. Make the immigration process more realistic. I know Mexican workers that came here illegally many years ago, have worked hard the whole time they were here, pay their taxes just like us, and are now citizens. I’m told that if they want to bring a brother or sister here legally to work, for a job that nobody here wants to do, it can take up to ten years. Of course they come illegally. We’re so hypocritical that we even have a tax form for them to file that says, “I’m working here illegally, but here’s my taxes.” 3. Require employers to pay a livable wage and to withhold taxes. By allowing employers to skirt the system by paying cash or calling their employees subcontractors we have created an entire group of workers that has no benefits. No health insurance, no worker’s comp, no unemployment insurance, no vacation, no retirement – the list goes on. We encourage them to come, take advantage of them, and then call them a burden.
This whole discussion is pointless as long as call ourselves democrats or republicans, left or right leaning. It’s no coincidence that we’re divided almost exactly 50-50 along political lines. Right down the middle. The politicians have us right where they want us, divided and afraid of each other. Funny how you can sit next to a stranger at a party or in a bar and get along great. You talk about family, jobs, hobbies, etc. Good times. Then someone mentions one of the hot button topics like taxes, religion, guns, gay mariage, or the wars, and all goes to hell. Suddenly, we are so different and feel the need to label each other and mock the other’s beliefs.
These are the tools of the politicians. They keep us distracted while they take in all of their money from the insurance, banking, drug, medical, legal, military, and other industry lobbies. None of them want this system to change. It works too well for them. All while they have the best insurance and retirement plans that we can buy for them.