• NASE Sponsors Women Entrepreneurship Regional Summits

• Congress Continues To Study Health Care Issue

NASE Sponsors Women Entrepreneurship Regional Summits

Register Now for the July 22nd Event in Nashville, TN

Attention women micro-business owners! The NASE is helping the Department of Labor, the Bush Administration and Members of Congress bring regional summits on women entrepreneurship to your area. The free day-long conferences will focus on access to capital, developing your business, health care, procurement and regional opportunities and contacts. The first event is next week in Nashville, TN. Check out www.nase.org/news/summits.asp for more information on all the summits.

Congress Continues To Study Health Care Issue

The National Association for the Self-Employed has successfully managed to get the attention of Congress regarding the health care crisis. In a hearing last week, the Regulatory Reform and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee examined why health care costs for small and micro-businesses are so high, why the costs continue to rise and what Congress can do to help.

The NASE provided concrete evidence from the health care survey released in June. Subcommittee Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN) used the information in his opening statement, telling participants that "the NASE reports...that 7 out of 10 micro-businesses don't provide health insurance, and cost is almost uniformly cited as the reason."

Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), ranking member, added, "We know small businesses want to provide health insurance for their employees and their families...but small businesses can't get the health insurance for one big reason -- it just costs too much." He continued, "If we help them do that, we can go a long way to covering more Americans' health care needs."

The subcommittee debated the fallbacks and problems of guaranteed issue and community rating -- two government programs that were intended to help the small-business insurance market but have only added more problems.

Several solutions to the increasing price of health coverage were offered, including increased competition and customer choice, refundable tax credits, the establishment of high-risk pools covered by a public-private partnership, medical savings accounts (MSAs) and Association Health Plans. MSAs combine a high-deductible, catastrophic insurance policy with a tax-exempt savings account.

Hearing participant Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) aptly summed up the health care situation: "Association Health Plans and tax credits represent important ideas that will ultimately figure into a plan to reduce the number of uninsured small business employees. However, we must recognize that there is no blanket solution to this problem."

The NASE continues to examine and work for health care reform in many ways.

Do any of these issues affect you? Visit the NASE's Legislative Action Center  and "Tell Your Small Business Story." This will help the NASE understand - on a personal level - how key legislative issues are affecting your business and your bottom line.

For more information about any of the articles in Washington Watch, contact Maureen Petron, NASE public affairs manager, at (202) 466-2100 or mpetron@nase.org.