Lawmakers will likely not consider health care legislation before Congress' August recess, which is scheduled to begin next Friday, Aug. 6. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is calling the chances for a floor vote on health care before the break a long shot.

The Patients Bill of Rights was defeated in the Senate July 16, although a proposal that creates new mandates and increases costs for small business owners was passed.

The health reform debate strikes at the core of Main Street's most pressing concern: the high cost of health care. For years, small employers have considered the high cost of health care to be the single-greatest impediment to continuing its leadership of the nation's economic expansion.

Small business owners support true-market based reform measures, like the expansion of Association Health Plans (AHPs), which provide small companies economies of scale and give Main Street firms the same opportunities enjoyed by self-insured firms that are exempt from state and federal mandates.

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