About Us
Keeping Small Business Healthy
A project by the Institute for Liberty
Keeping Small Business Healthy is an initiative of the Institute for Liberty. The project’s primary objective is to ensure that any health care reform legislation passed by Congress addresses the challenges faced by small business without imposing harmful government mandates. Congress continues to debate health care reform legislation and currently multiple proposals are being considered in various congressional committees.
The nation faces serious economic challenges—and any credible foray into reforming America’s health care system must not only recognize these challenges, but it’s solutions cannot exacerbate either the existing health care problems or the nation’s economic difficulties. Keeping Small Business Healthy will be a champion for smart health care reform that will ensure that the U.S. health care system remains the best in the world – without harming small business and costing jobs.
American small businesses are a powerful engine of the U.S. economy. Ninety percent of American businesses have fewer than 20 employees, and these businesses provide two-thirds of all new jobs. Reckless health care reform that penalizes employers will hurt the already struggling job market and stifle economic growth. During these challenging economic times, American small businesses cannot afford to pay for exorbitant government mandates.
The Keeping Small Business Healthy project insists that health care reform includes medical liability reform, more health insurance options and competition to help decrease costs.
Smart health care reform must:
1. Repeal all state laws that prevent private insurance companies from competing across state lines.
2. Repeal laws that mandate what services must be covered by insurance companies.
3. Enact tort reform that will eliminate frivolous lawsuits and the practice of defensive medicine.
4. Ensure that medical costs are transparent so that consumers will better understand the cost of their health care treatments.
5. Reform tax laws to ensure that employer provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits.
6. Encourage entrepreneurship in the medical field and increase the numbers of doctors, nurses, and other technical medical professionals.
Smart health care reform does not:
1. Risk American jobs by mandating that employers provide health insurance.
2. Increase taxes on employers who cannot afford to offer health insurance.
3. Penalize small businesses that do not provide government “approved” health insurance.
4. Give the federal government the power to define coverage and determine what types of insurance plans are “acceptable.”
5. Discourage doctors and nurses from joining the medical field, or, even worse, encourage them from leaving the field.
By joining the Keeping Small Business Healthy project, you can help ensure that free market principals are protected and that American small businesses continue to thrive. A healthy small business equals a healthy economy – and healthy Americans.