Congress should make it “a great national priority” to help provide health insurance for America’s uninsured, Arkansas’ U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln says.
The Associated Press reported that Lincoln was joined by two other senators recently in pushing her bill to help small employers provide coverage for their workers.
Officials say one out of every seven Arkansans—about 400,000—are among the more than 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance. Lincoln said eight out of 10 of those without insurance have jobs, or are members of a family in which someone is employed, but spiraling health-care costs have put coverage out of reach for many families and small businesses.
“It’s something our working families desperately need help with. Looking for health insurance at a reasonable cost should be something we should help them with,” she said at a news conference with U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Tom Carper, D-Del., co-sponsors of her bill.
About three-fourths of Arkansas business have fewer than 50 employees, and fewer than one-third of those business provide health insurance for their employees, Lincoln said.
Under her proposal, modeled after the plan that covers members of Congress and other federal employees, the self-employed and businesses with 100 or fewer employees could band together and choose among private insurance plans and negotiate rates for employee health coverage.
The measure also would provide federal tax incentives for companies that contribute to employee health plan, but with a hefty price tag – as much as $55 billion over 10 years.
Lincoln said she was meeting with Republican members to try and forge bipartisan support. The insurance industry has not come out against the measure, though it could view it as competition for its small-market business, the senator said.
Republicans are pushing an alternative that President Bush is eyeing, but it does not provide the tax incentives or consumer protections that her bill has, Lincoln said.
Discussion of the proposed “Small Employers Health Benefits Program Act of 2005” comes during a national effort called “Cover the Uninsured Week.”
Lincoln, Pryor and Carper are seatmates in the Senate. Carper said he was interested in the bill though about 10 percent of Delaware residents have no insurance, among the lowest percentages in the nation.
He also said he came to Little Rock for a fundraiser for his re-election campaign.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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