Bill Nelson: “the underlying bill we are discussing is an attempt at a much needed reform of the health insurance system of this…”

“the underlying bill we are discussing is an attempt at a much needed reform of the health insurance system of this country. If you wonder why there is the organization of health insurance in this country that we have, it is as a result of a historical accident. It was when all the veterans were coming home after World War II that employers, in order to get them to come and work for their company, would offer fringe benefits, one of those fringe benefits being health insurance. Therefore, a system developed in this country of organizing health insurance around an employer. As time grew and things got more complicated, health insurance offered by an employer that was a large employer, with hundreds and thousands of employees, could offer a cheaper rate because of the principle of insurance; that is, you take the health risk, you spread it over the most number of lives, and therefore you bring down the per-unit cost or the cost to the individual for the health insurance premium. Because in a much larger group, you have young and old, you have sick and well; instead of a group being smaller and smaller--especially if it is a mom-and-pop store that wants to insure their employees--there are not many lives over which to spread that health risk, and therefore the cost of that health insurance is going to be so much more than on a large group. That is why we have used the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan as an example we should try to achieve.…”