Frank Pallone: “I just wanted to lead us, if I could, we have about 15, 20 minutes left, maybe not quite 20, into what we would do as an…”

“I just wanted to lead us, if I could, we have about 15, 20 minutes left, maybe not quite 20, into what we would do as an alternative. As I said, if you wanted to use tax policy as a way of trying to address the problems here, and I am not saying that that is the most effective way to do it, but if you did, certainly a refundable tax credit would be more useful to that lower-income person than this deduction that may not even be able to take advantage of. But I just wanted to also point out that if you look at the problem with the uninsured right now, first is the employer-sponsored insurance which increasingly fewer and fewer people are able to take advantage of, even though they are working, because the employer simply does not provide either any coverage or a meaningful coverage that they can afford with their copayment. What employers tell me is that we have to provide some sort of incentive for them if they are going to cover those people that work for them that they do not cover now, and that either means, again, if you are going to use tax policy, some kind of tax benefit to them or, alternatively, getting rid of some of the cost of the coverage.”