EER Subcommittee Chairman Will Closely Follow Issue

WASHINGTON - Employer-Employee Relations (EER) Subcommittee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement today regarding the American Medical Association’s (AMA) vote yesterday to endorse the unionization of doctors:

"The AMA’s vote to support the unionization of doctors is the worst medicine the medical community could use to fix America’s health care system. The increased costs from unionizing would certainly be passed on to consumers, raising premiums and hurting the people we should be helping the most: the 43 million Americans without health insurance.

"Some in Congress are pursuing legislation, H.R. 1304, to allow doctors who are not ‘employees’ under federal labor law to collectively bargain with HMOs and other health plans. I am concerned about the effect on health care costs if this bill becomes law. In a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Robert Pitofsky said that physicians who were employees - meaning they work for an HMO, hospital, or other health care organization - were already covered under the National Labor Relations Act.

"This bill would rewrite the NLRA, and therefore falls within the jurisdiction of the EER Subcommittee. In addition, H.R. 1304 would certainly drive up costs of employer-provided health plans under ERISA, which also fall under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee.

"A recent study by the Health Insurance Association of America found that H.R. 1304 would cause premium rate increases of 6 to 11 percent annually and would cause national costs to raise by as much as $80 billion a year. That kind of cost explosion is unacceptable and would add millions of Americans to the ranks of the uninsured.

"In the coming weeks, the EER Subcommittee will be closely examining these issues and the impact this move by the AMA will have on health care costs and patients. In the meantime, Congress has a fundamental responsibility to address the needs of America’s uninsured as part of any comprehensive effort to reform health care in America."

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