By: Christine Buttorff, news correspondent
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) wants to end employer-based health care insurance and replace it with a tax-credit to allow everyone to purchase their own private health insurance.
Cooper is one of the House sponsors of the ‘Healthy Americans Act,’ which was reintroduced in the House earlier this month.
Congress will not be taking any action on the proposal until at least next year under a new president, but while in Nashville on Monday, Cooper said it’s important to begin talking about the issue now. Health care spending accounts for about 16-percent of the gross domestic product, and is especially important to Nashville’s economy.
“Nashville probably has more to gain or lose than any other city in America because we’re a premier health care capital,” said Cooper. “Whether it’s HCA, or Saint Thomas, or Vanderbilt [University Medical Center] or other fine health care institutions and companies here we are much more health care oriented than most other places in the country.”
Under the bill, employers would give employees the money spent on health care premiums. Employees would then be required to buy health insurance with after-tax dollars.
Cooper said a $15,000 tax-credit for a family of four would also allow those whose employers don’t offer health insurance to buy it. Health insurance for a family of four is estimated to cost about $12,000 per year.
Under the bill, employers will still be able to offer prevention and wellness benefits, and withhold premiums from paychecks. However, many corporations have pushed back, saying that health benefits are one way they are able to recruit.
Cooper said that system has been abused meaning extra perks are added allowing some individuals, particularly high-paid executives, to deduct more money.
“There are some people who wouldn’t get their $50,000 break, but everyone would get at least $15,000,” explained Cooper. He added that if everyone is enrolled, risk would be pooled across the whole population, so insurance companies will be required to insure even those with serious, chronic conditions.
In addition to pooling risk, the bill is also estimated to save $1.48 trillion dollars in health care costs over the next eight years as insurance companies adapt to compete for individuals on the private health insurance market.
A 150-member group called the “National Coalition on Benefits,” (NCB), which includes major employers such as the BlueCross BlueShield Association and the FedEx Corporation, have expressed other concerns. In a letter this month to the bill’s Senate sponsors, the NCB said that the bill has the potential to inhibit the way employers offer standardized benefits across state lines.
The “Employee Retirement Income Security Act,” (ERISA) allows employers, according to the letter, “to offer uniform benefits to their employees, retirees and families without being subject to the confusing patchwork of mandates, restrictions and costly rules that vary from state to state.”
Cooper counters that some kind of national standard would be created to establish a basic health plan across states.
The bill would offer subsidies for those making up to 400-percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($21,200 for a family of four), and therefore get rid of Medicaid altogether.
Both of Tennessee’s Republican Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker are co-sponsors of the Senate bill, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah).
Invitations were issued to 'women leaders' for Monday’s event. About 100 women and a few men attended.
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