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Baltimore business
owner urges Congress to reject Kennedy health
bill
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Release Date:
07/12/99
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WASHINGTON, D.C., July 12,
1999 -- At a Capitol Hill press conference this
afternoon, Baltimore businesswoman Ann Casey
urged the Senate to reject "Patients' Bill of
Rights" legislation sponsored by Sen. Edward
Kennedy, Mass. "The only 'rights' this bill
would confer on my husband and me is the right
to lose our health coverage," said Casey,
co-owner of Parcel Place. Casey and her husband
are the owners, and sole employees, of the small
proprietorship on Honey go Boulevard.
The
Senate opens debate today on the Kennedy bill
that seeks to strengthen federal regulation of
the health care industry. Key provisions of the
bill would require all health policies to cover
specific conditions -- such as mental illnesses
-- often not included in basic coverage
agreements. The bill also would allow patients
to sue their health plans if they were
dissatisfied with benefit claims decisions.
Opponents of the measure, including NFIB, the
nation's leading small business group, warn that
such provisions will unnecessarily raise
insurance costs, making coverage unaffordable
for many Americans.
"My husband and I are
only two of the hundreds of thousands of small
business owners and employee who would be
stripped of our coverage if this bill should
pass," Casey said. "Our health premiums already
stand at $300 a month. We are 'on the bubble' of
health-care affordability. Even the smallest
increase needlessly triggered by this bill would
burst this precious bubble, leaving my husband
and me with no sense of health security,
whatsoever.
"Sen. Kennedy and his
supporters argue that analyses of his bill
showing it would raise coverage costs by 10
percent are off base. That the true cost would
be only half that amount," Casey noted. "I'm
here to say that a five percent price hike in
health care is a big deal to me and others in my
position. It's the difference between having
basic coverage and having no coverage at all. To
Sen. Kennedy and his colleagues I say, 'Please,
please, don't strip us of our health
coverage'."
Casey was one of three small
business owners brought together at the news
conference by NFIB. Also speaking at the event
was Sen. Don Nickles, Okla., chief sponsor of an
alternative "Patients' Bill of Rights" proposal
that omits most of the expensive mandates and
the expanded legal liability provisions of the
Kennedy bill.
For more than a decade,
surveys by the National Federation of
Independent Business (NFIB) have found that
small business owners rank health insurance
costs as the greatest single problem facing
their firms. Gaining passage of legislation that
will expand health coverage by lowering health
care costs for small firms is a top legislative
goal for the group.
NFIB the nation's
largest small business advocacy group. A
nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in
1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its
600,000 members in Washington and all 50 state
capitals. More information is available online
at www.nfib.com.
CONTACT: Mary Mead
Crawford or Jim
Weidman at 202.554.9000
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