• NASE President Robert Hughes Testifies Before Congress
• NASE Lauds Federal Effort To Combat Tax Inequity, Health Coverage Availability
• Health IT To Be Tested At Federal Level

NASE President Robert Hughes Testifies Before Congress On The Affect of State Regulations and Consolidation of Insurers on Health Costs

In a statement made before a House Committee on Small Business hearing, NASE President Robert Hughes provided another important snapshot of the micro-business health coverage landscape. “The self-employed are among the top groups that the current health care system in this country is failing,” said Hughes. “There are links between insurer consolidation and rising premium costs, but the state regulatory climate plays an even more critical role in keeping costs high and impairing competition.” Several times each year, individual states enact laws that describe services that insurance companies are required to cover, and these mandates can make health insurance more comprehensive. However, they also place a greater cost burden on insurance companies by requiring them to pay for certain health services that consumers had previously funded on their own. This often means that the cost is passed onto consumers in the form of higher premiums. According to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, recent estimates show that state mandates increase the cost of basic health coverage between from a little less than 20% to more than 50% depending on the state. Visit the NASE in Action (http://advocacy.nase.org/advocacy_efforts.asp) to read the full testimony.

NASE Lauds Federal Effort To Combat Tax Inequity, Health Coverage Availability The self-employed have long made up a substantial number of the working uninsured. Federal legislation introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) would help change that by eliminating a tax disparity that inhibits the self-employed from receiving a full deduction for health insurance costs. The Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act (S.2239) would fix the tax code which currently does not allow sole proprietors to deduct health insurance costs as a business expense. Sole proprietors are also unable to forego payroll (FICA) taxes on these expenses. “Nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured, and it’s estimated that nearly 60 percent of those individuals are either self-employed or work for small businesses. Enacting this legislation I’ve introduced with Senator Hatch would be one step toward addressing our nation’s growing uninsured problem,” Senator Bingaman said. The introduction of the bipartisan bill to the Senate marks the second time in 2007 that this tax disparity has been formally recognized by Congress. The Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act (S. 2239) is a companion bill to H.R. 3660, a measure of the same name that was introduced in the House of Representatives in September. Health IT To Be Tested At Federal Level The House Committee on Science and Technology gave its approval to legislation that would create a standard national system to implement the use of electronic health records. Many medical institutions and physicians’ offices agree that such IT solutions would reduce error and help provide more complete care to patients. The bill would task the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with leading the way for use of health IT at the federal level. “In a world of electronic information these issues can only be resolved through the development of technical standards. These standards currently do not exist in any comprehensive form,” said Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), who introduced the measure. “To me, NIST is the obvious federal agency to promote the development of these standards. NIST already has a proven track record in this type of work.” The NASE has long promoted the advancement of Health IT as a way to lower costs and create a more efficient health care system. The measure also provides grants for health IT research and implementation. Visit http://thomas.loc.gov for more information on H.R. 2406. Learn More Learn more about the self-employment tax and speak out for micro-businesses by visiting the NASE’s Legislative Action Center at http://advocacy.NASE.org.