Wayne Allard: “I think we ought to just take a little time out here and summarize where we are in this debate on whether or not we…”

“I think we ought to just take a little time out here and summarize where we are in this debate on whether or not we exempt businesses of 50 employees or fewer. And this is the way I want to lay it out. The Democrats are arguing that 41 percent of small business employees will lack protection from HMOs. That argument is wrong. Forty-one percent of small business employees will be subject to increased health care premiums or even losing their health maintenance insurance altogether. They will not be insured. So this argument that there is a line being drawn between 48 and 51 employees, the fact is, when you expose small employers and small businesses to increased lawsuits when they take on a program, they are not going to take on the program. So employees will not be insured. Moreover, an employee does not get protection from HMOs from suing their employer. If they need to sue, they should sue their HMO, not the employer, who happens to be, by the way, kind enough to offer the health insurance. Under S. 1052, employee health costs will increase $1.19 per month. Again, I believe this argument is irrelevant, and because of S. 1052 we will see, in my view, more than 1 million Americans will lose their health insurance. At least the Senate can do something to help out small employers by exempting them from these unnecessary lawsuits.”