Small Businesses Urge Congress To Start Over On Health Care

Business leaders from 18 states asked Congress to start over on health care reform during the December 9 fly-in.

The U.S. Chamber led more than 70 business leaders from 18 states to Capitol Hill on December 9 to tell Congress that it needs to start over on health care reform and draft a bill that doesn’t hurt businesses and working families.

“We need bipartisan health reform that actually lowers costs, doesn’t leave 24 million Americans uninsured, and doesn’t cause 10 million people to lose their employer-sponsored health benefits. Unfortunately, the Senate bill under discussion does not meet the goals that the president laid out at the beginning of this debate,” said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of Government Affairs for the U.S. Chamber.

Small business owners including Victoria Jean Bingham of Alexandria, Virginia, travelled to Washington to join Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and John Cornyn (R-TX) at a press conference on Capitol Hill and to meet with members of Congress or their staff.

The issue of creating jobs is particularly important to Bingham, who used to have eight employees before the recession, but is now down to two. “Congress is addressing the wrong crisis,” said Bingham, the owner of Buon Fresco LLC, an art school and studio. “They should be addressing the economy.” 

The Chamber’s Bruce Josten is flanked by small business owners and senators during a press conference on Capitol Hill.

Before going to the Hill, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) spoke to the attendees at Chamber headquarters, making the case that it is critical that small businesses get involved in slowing down the Senate health care bill, which he says is a “jobs killer” and a “bad piece of legislation.”

“This is crunch time. We have to be in there every single day fighting and promoting policies that grow jobs and free enterprise. Senators have to hear from people across the country who care about this issue and want to get involved,” Thune said.

Bingham agreed that the debate has reached a critical point. “I don’t want to tell my grandchildren someday that when the iron was hot, I didn’t do anything.”

The Chamber-led lobbying blitz included business advocates from Arizona, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington state.

The Chamber is fighting health care reform that imposes onerous mandates on employers, raises taxes, and creates a dangerous government-run health care plan.

Read more about health care reform the Chamber and small businesses can support here.