Grassroots petition seeks health-care relief

According to the National Federation of Independent Business/Missouri, 14,519 members and small-business owners have signed petitions in support of small-business health plan legislation.

The Senate next week is scheduled to hear S. 1955, The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2006. Proponents say the act will level the playing field and give participating small businesses the same buying power as Fortune 500 companies and unions by allowing them to join national association health plans.

“This groundswell support shows small-business owners are facing a crisis in providing health insurance for themselves and their employees, and they need immediate relief,” NFIB/Missouri State Director Brad Jones said in a news release.

However, opponents say the plans would increase health care costs for older and sicker Americans while adding minimal coverage for a small fraction of the nation's uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office has made a case against it.

A CBO analysis shows that S. 1955:

• could result in higher premiums for small businesses with older workers or employees with complex health care needs.

• would lower premiums by only 2 to 3 percent on average.

• would cause 100,000 people who have and depend on health insurance to lose coverage. While CBO believes that a total of approximately 600,000 people (or only 1.3 percent of the 45 million Americans who are uninsured) would gain coverage under the bill, that group would be younger and healthier and have “lower health costs than those who would lose private health insurance under S. 1955.”

On a national level, bill sponsors have received 450,000 signed petitions.