• National Campaign Focusing on the Uninsured Underway This Week

• Coalition Urges Passage of Health Care Tax Credits to Help Cover Uninsured

• OSHA Relief Bills Pass House Committee

• Giving the Regulatory Flexibility Act More "Teeth"

National Campaign Focusing on the Uninsured Underway This Week


At least 20 million working Americans do not have health insurance coverage, including many who own or work for a micro-business with fewer than 10 employees, according to a new study released recently to launch Cover the Uninsured Week. The Week is a nonpartisan campaign to focus attention on the need to secure health coverage for all Americans.

The NASE serves as a National Supporter of the Week, joining hundreds of other national organizations, honorary co-chairs Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and national spokesperson and television's ER star Noah Wyle in supporting the campaign. At the launch event, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) also loaned their support.

“The first step in any campaign is education, and that is what Cover the Uninsured Week is all about,” said NASE President Robert Hughes. “With nearly 1,700 events being held across the country this week, not only do we want to make Americans aware of this crisis, but arm them with the tools to get covered.”

From May 10 to 16, 2004, Cover the Uninsured Week will feature events from coast to coast so that Americans can learn more about this urgent problem – important facts, like eight out of 10 people who are uninsured either work or are in working families, or how minor illnesses become major because health care is delayed, and how one significant medical expense can wipe out a family’s bank account.

The local events will bring together diverse community leaders to insist that all Americans have access to health care coverage. Specific events are designed to help uninsured individuals get services and provide information to small business owners struggling to provide health insurance for their employees.

According to NASE original research, seventy percent of micro-businesses with fewer than ten employees do not have health coverage for themselves, or offer it to their employees, citing costs as the main reason. In addition, the self-employed currently pay on average 18 percent more for health insurance than those who work for larger companies; a situation rooted in federal tax codes that deal jolting penalties to micro-businesses. While corporations are able to deduct health insurance premiums as a business expense and forego FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes on these expenses, the self-employed are unable to deduct premiums as a business expense and are required to pay an additional 15.3 percent self-employment tax on these expenses. Micro-businesses also frequently miss out on the economies of scale available to bigger businesses when purchasing health insurance.

For more information about Cover the Uninsured Week, or for a list of events in your area, visit:
www.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org.

Coalition Urges Passage of Health Care Tax Credits to Help Cover Uninsured

As Cover the Uninsured Week works to bring attention to the 44 million Americans without health coverage, a coalition of business, medical, consumer, insurance and pharmaceutical industries urged Congress to pass health care tax credits as a solution for many of those uninsured. Hours after a task force of Republican Senators proposed several legislative efforts to curb the growing ranks of the uninsured, the Coalition for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) advocated health care tax credits as a solution.

The NASE is a member of the Coalition, which supports market-based solution to reduce the number of uninsured. Health care tax credits would make health coverage more affordable for many, particularly micro-businesses who currently do not offer an insurance benefit to their employees. They would help cover the health insurance costs of micro-businesses and the self-employed so that businesses of all sizes receive a more equitable tax treatment for these costs.

Write your Member of Congress to support health care tax credits and other proposed legislation to help increase access to affordable health coverage at advocacy.nase.org.
 

OSHA Relief Bills Pass House Committee

Relief for micro-businesses burdened by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules could be on its way if the House Education and Workforce Committee has its way. Last week the committee passed four bills that could reduce the affect OSHA regulations have on businesses with fewer than 100 employees, including extending the amount of time a small business has to file an appeal of a citation (H.R. 2728). In addition, H.R. 2731 would help small businesses recover attorney costs if they are successful in a citation appeal. H.R. 2729 and H.R. 2730 would increase the OSHA review board to five members, and give the board more independence from the Department of Labor, respectively.

Giving the Regulatory Flexibility Act More "Teeth"

A bill to give more “teeth” to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) was the focus of a House Small Business Committee hearing last week, supported by the NASE.

The RFA, enacted in 1980, requires federal agencies to assess the impact of proposed regulations on small businesses before implementing them. Committee Chairman Don Manzullo (R-IL) believes that the law has too many loopholes that need to be closed.

He introduced the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (H.R. 2345) to eliminate those ambiguities. H.R. 2345 would require federal agencies to complete a more detailed economic impact analysis, including examining the indirect costs, on small business before enacting new regulations. In addition, the bill gives more enforcement authority to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.

If you have been affected by burdensome federal regulations, Tell Your Story to the NASE at the Legislative Action Center. While there, you can also write a letter to your Member of Congress urging them to support H.R. 2345.