Lizzie Fletcher: “Health care coverage is becoming more unaffordable for workers and small businesses all across America. In fact, the…”

“Health care coverage is becoming more unaffordable for workers and small businesses all across America. In fact, the cost of providing health care now exceeds the cost of taxes. For that reason, I have introduced the Small Business Health Fairness Act to ensure that more workers can afford their health care, regardless of whether they work for a large international company or for just a small hardware store on Main Street. A farmer in Kentucky should have the same access to health benefits as someone who works for a large company like Ford Motor Company. That is where the fairness is. Why should small business employees not be able to obtain the same economies of scale, bargaining power, benefit design and choices now available to those in large corporations and to those in labor unions? Ninety-eight percent of large businesses offer health insurance to their employees. Less than half of small businesses offer this important benefit. When we look at the fact that the morbidity rate of an uninsured hospitalized patient is more than twice that of an insured one, I think we can see that that is a resounding call to decrease the number of uninsured, which this bill will do.”