ARA Supports Small Business Healthcare Bill

June 17, 2008 • The Small Business Healthcare Options Program (SHOP Act), H.R. 6210, has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives and the American Rental Association (ARA) is monitoring its progress.

 

Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) announced at a press conference a goal of creating statewide or nationwide purchasing pools for small businesses. H.R. 6210 is companion legislation to S. 2795, which was introduced in the Senate by Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Blanch Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in April.

 

“We are pleased to learn of the enhancements to the SHOP Act as it affects many of our 4,200 rental business members,” said Christine Wehrman, ARA executive vice president and CEO. “As an active association that strives to meet the needs of our members, our vice president for government affairs, John McClelland, is working very closely with political leaders in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., to keep this legislation moving forward.”

 

According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation's leading small business association, of the estimated 47 million Americans without health insurance, more than 28 million are small business owners, their employees and dependents.

 

This bill is designed to make healthcare more affordable for the self-employed and small businesses. Among other things, the bill would allow small businesses and the self-employed to band together in a statewide or nationwide pool by 2011, to obtain lower health insurance prices by spreading their risk over a larger number of participants.

 

No further action will take place with this bill until after the presidential elections. In the interim, legislators involved in the reform are committed to providing education about the bill to their colleagues.