March 28, 2006
New York Day in Washington—May 10-11
The hotel room block AND early-bird registration rate expire on Monday, April 10th!
Climb Capitol Hill with CANYS and plan to attend New York Day in Washington, May 10-11, 2006. The registration form and event agenda are available HERE.
New York Day provides chambers and business people an opportunity for meaningful contact with Congressional legislators and staff. Your colleagues on the New York Day planning committee are working hard to bring you a Legislative Reception on Capitol Hill featuring made-in-New York refreshments, a Congressional Breakfast highlighted by addresses from Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Hillary Clinton, an Issues Briefing with high-level policymakers and political activists, and more.
Sponsorships for the Legislative Reception are now being accepted. The sponsorship form is available HERE.
The CANYS Board and New York Day Planning Committee aim to make this event valuable and reasonable. To that end, please take advantage of the discounted hotel room block at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Washington DC (see registration form), and competitive fares from discount airlines serving the metro-DC area. Plan now to bring your members and join us in New York Day in Washington!
Small Business Health Plans Legislation Advances in U.S. Senate
Association Health Plans are now being referred to as Small Business Health Plans.
From the U.S. Chamber: Legislation that would allow small businesses to join together to purchase health insurance through trade and professional associations has been successfully voted out of a key Senate committee. This is the first time the Senate has acted on SBHP legislation - the House has passed similar legislation eight times in recent years. The Small Business Health Fairness Act would allow small businesses to leverage the same purchasing power as their larger competitors and offer health insurance across state lines. It could be voted on by the full Senate in coming weeks, according to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
The East Bay Business Times has a story on the bill’s
movement through the Senate:
Senate
could help small business health plans
New York’s Legislative Gazette has a story on Assemblyman Pete Grannis’ and Senator Jim Seward’s opposition to the bill: Grannis, Seward call on U.S. Senate to reject Enzi bill
ABC News has another account of the bill’s recent legislative
action:
Bill
may help Small Business Health Plans
Small Employer Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) Act
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced separate legislation dealing with health insurance on March 7, 2006. From the Senator’s press release: The Small Employer Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) Act allows small businesses to join into one risk and purchasing pool, just like under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Under the bill, small businesses would be able to negotiate for lower costs and employees would have access to a wider array of affordable choices.
By pooling small businesses across America into one risk and purchasing pool like FEHBP, the new Small Employers Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) created under Senator Clinton’s bill would allow employers to reap the benefits of group purchasing power and streamlined administrative costs, as well as access to more plan choices.
Health plans would bid to offer benefit packages to SEHBP enrollees. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)… would ensure that the health insurers bidding for access to the pool are offering appropriate benefits at reasonable prices as they have with the program for federal employees.
Employers who participate in the small business program also will receive a tax credit to defray the costs of covering lower income employees. If the employer contributes 60 percent or more to the health insurance premium of an employee making $25,000 or less, the employer will receive a 25 percent tax credit. The tax credit increases with family coverage.
Engage your members on health insurance mandate bills
The debate continues in Albany over the series of so-called “Wal-Mart” health insurance mandate bills. A number of these bills would force employers to provide health insurance coverage to their employees—with variations regardless of business size, employee-hours worked, industry sector or geographic location within New York State.
The economic consequence of these bills is huge—even in the most lenient legislative version. You can compare the bills for yourself by looking at this chart.
The Business Council is asking chambers to engage their memberships over this very serious and very costly issue. An e-advocacy campaign is currently running, and all chambers are encouraged to push this issue to their memberships.
Phone calls to legislators—from your members—are equally as important. The message should be: “My business is against any and all health insurance mandate bills.” The Senate switchboard number is 518-455-2800. The Assembly switchboard number is 518-455-4100. Please have your members call both.
For questions or help in getting the health insurance mandate messages out to your membership, please e-mail maggie.moree@bcnys.org.
Tell us about it
Got a question you’d like to ask other CANYS members? Job opening in your chamber? Great idea you’d like to share? Send it to maggie.moree@bcnys.org.
