the arizona strategy
USChamber.com Magazine
A mandate on employers to sponsor health insurance would not make serious headway in covering the uninsured and instead would lead to the loss of jobs, according to the U.S. Chamber.
"An employer mandate would be a job killer," says Bruce Josten, the Chamber's executive vice president for Government Affairs. "It would force struggling employers to spend money they don't have, reduce flexibility and choice, and raise employer costs in an economy that is already shedding jobs." Josten joined other association leaders at a May 5 Senate Finance Committee hearing on expanding health care coverage.
The Chamber also opposes the creation of a government-run health plan, or the so called "public option." "This would put the government in a position of being both a team owner and a referee," Josten says. "Inevitably, the government would move to give unfair advantages to the 'public option.'"
Josten presented a series of alternative proposals and pledged the Chamber's support in helping build support for them. "If Congress develops a fair proposal that makes things better for individuals and business, we will work to enact it," Josten says. “It will be a challenge to ensure that new subsidies and obligations do not disrupt the employer-sponsored system, which is currently working for more than 130 million Americans.”
Specifically, the Chamber recommends the following changes:
- Improve the federal and state agency process for enrolling the estimated 11 million people who are currently eligible for government-sponsored or free health insurance
- Make insurance attractive to the approximately 15 million uninsured who have high enough incomes to afford insurance but choose not to purchase it. This segment of the uninsured would benefit from the creation of a "national insurance connector" to serve as a marketplace for pooling options.
- Expand the floor for Medicaid and other government programs to cover the estimated 10 million uninsured who cannot afford coverage or offer them government subsidies for the purchase of private insurance.
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