John Tierney: “Mr. Speaker, the so-called Small Business Health Fairness Act is a bill that is attractive to a few but it is sufficient…”

“Mr. Speaker, the so-called Small Business Health Fairness Act is a bill that is attractive to a few but it is sufficient for none, and it seems to be harmful for everyone else. While there are employers, workers and family members who do depend on health insurance, what they really need is solutions that are going to work for everybody and not just some empty promises. The Congressional Budget Office did an estimate on this proposed bill and estimated that approximately 4.6 million people might obtain some coverage through these proposed associated health plans but only about 330,000 of those people would be new customers. The fact of the matter is that there is not going to be the dramatic savings that is proposed here. That simply will not materialize. The Congressional Budget Office found that these AHP premiums would only be marginally less than the traditional health care plans. In fact, the Mercer Consulting STUDY that was done for the National Small Business Association found that premiums would increase by 23 percent for those outside the AHP market. It also found there would be an increase in the number of uninsured workers in small firms, an increase of a million people, as a result of this being implemented.”