Charles Boustany: “45 million Americans lack health insurance today, and the number is rapidly growing. Twenty-six percent of all adults in…”

“45 million Americans lack health insurance today, and the number is rapidly growing. Twenty-six percent of all adults in Louisiana lack health insurance, and 22.6 percent of all working adults in Louisiana lack insurance. It has been said over here that we need the insurance mandates to protect the patient. Insurance mandates are meaningless without insurance. We need a free market health care system that allows doctors to make decisions and not insurance companies. Fifty-two percent of Louisiana's small businesses offer health insurance, and the number is constantly declining. We must act to ensure that Americans can afford the health insurance that they need, and we can do so by passing H.R. 525, the Small Business Health Fairness Act. This bill will create association health plans that will allow small businesses to band together through bona fide trade associations to become larger purchasers of health insurance, thus giving small businesses the same benefits that Fortune 500 companies now enjoy. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that small businesses obtaining insurance through AHPs would average premium reductions of 13 percent and some as high as 25 percent reductions. Overhead costs alone would decrease by as much as 30 percent under these plans. What is wrong with this? This is offering affordable coverage to workers.…”