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Wonderling Hosts New Hampshire Lawmakers Sharing Solutions for
Small Group Health Insurance Reform
HARRISBURG -- Two
leaders of the New Hampshire State Senate offered Pennsylvania lawmakers their
insight today on how to pass a meaningful law that can increase health insurance
choices for the vast majority of Pennsylvania small businesses.
Two years ago, New Hampshire's
small business community was in a tailspin. A law that allowed medical
underwriting had been passed and many of New Hampshire's small business owners
had to drop health benefits leaving many working adults uninsured.
Luckily for New Hampshire, the
newly elected Governor, John Lynch and two state senators, a Republican and a
Democrat, led the effort to repeal the law. In turn, new legislation was
enacted that banned medical underwriting for small businesses.
The Pennsylvanians for Small
Group Health Insurance Reform (PaSGR) coalition brought those two senators, Ted
Gatsas (R) and Margaret Hassan (D) to Harrisburg to share their story. The
visit provided a unique opportunity for Pennsylvanians to learn how another
state has successfully passed legislation that makes health insurance more
accessible for all small businesses.
Alongside Sen. Robert
Wonderling (R) of Montgomery County and Rep. Curt Schroder (R) of Chester
County, both authors of bills that ban medical underwriting in Pennsylvania,
Senate Bill 671 and House Bill 1240, the New Hampshire senators spoke about
their bipartisan alliance that eased the burden on their state's most valuable
economic asset, small businesses.
“In New Hampshire more than 85
percent of the businesses have fewer than 50 employees working for them and 65
percent of those businesses are made up of fewer than 10 employees,” said Gatsas.
“The truth is medical underwriting of small businesses had a disastrous effect
on our state, its small business owners and its economy.”
The previous law showed
immediate negative economic impact on the state's economy. Census Bureau
reports showed that the number of uninsured New Hampshire residents grew by
21,000 to 152,000 in 2004.
The overall message from the
visiting senators was simply that change was needed to protect small businesses
and political differences must be pushed aside to create meaningful reform.
“I strongly urge the
Pennsylvania General Assembly to work together. Democrats and Republicans
working together can return stability and fairness to the small group health
insurance market,” said Sen. Hassan. “We do not pretend to be experts on
Pennsylvania. However, we do know that much like our state of New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania's small businesses deserve a stable and fair marketplace in which
to purchase and provide health insurance for their workers.”
Senator Robert Wonderling and
Representative Curt Schroder again urged their legislative colleagues to support
their legislative solutions and vote them out of committee for a full vote in
the General Assembly.
“We are here today because we
continue to be concerned that Pennsylvania workers will become uninsured as
employers face double digit increases in their health insurance costs,"
Wonderling said. "A recent study by the Keystone Research Center and Economic
Policy Institute indicates that nearly 500,000 fewer Pennsylvanians were
provided health insurance through their employers today than in 2000,”
Wonderling continued. “The cost of providing family coverage for those workers
is over $4 billion dollars." “We need to act now to prohibit the discriminatory
practice of medical underwriting so all of our citizens will have access to
affordable health care."
“We should not allow the process to get bogged down with
large insurance companies on either side of this issue. The bottom line is this
issue is about small businesses, which are a critical cog in the economic engine
of Pennsylvania,” added Rep. Schroder. “We must protect and enable them to be
truly competitive.”
 
Sen. Rob Wonderling, left, is joined by
New Hampshire
Senator Margaret Hassan, center, and Senate President Ted Gatsas, right,
at an Oct. 26 news conference in the Capitol
Media Center to support the
need to mandate a modified community rating for health care insurance.
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