Taking Another Stab at Health Care
By Mariwyn Evans
If you’re like me, you're tired of worrying constantly that you or your family may not be able to get health insurance, afford coverage, or keep coverage if they have a serious illness.
I’m one of the lucky ones, since NAR offers health insurance for its employees. But I have friends and brothers and sisters who work for themselves — just as most REALTORS® do — and aren’t so lucky. Either they must pay hundreds of dollars a month for coverage, or rely on a spouse for coverage. But what if you simply can’t afford the coverage, or what if your spouse gets laid off?
These concerns are why I’ve always intently followed NAR’s efforts to get a small-business health plan bill through Congress. I hadn’t heard much about the initiative lately — at least not until I sat in on the Business Issues Committee meeting today at the NAR Midyear Meetings.
That’s where I heard that NAR has been keeping up the fight and has now played a key role in shaping the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, a bill introduced in Senate last month. This bill would create a national pool of people seeking insurance from private health care insurance providers. It wouldn’t be mandatory for small companies to participate, but it would guarantee that anyone seeking coverage could get it regardless of their health issues, and it would give a tax credit to individuals and companies to cover some portion of premiums.
According to NAR staff working on these efforts, the bill addresses many of the concerns some groups had about previous small-business health plan proposals. This one may finally be able to get enough votes to move through both houses. There’s still no guarantee it will pass this year, but with any luck, I’ll be able to stop worrying about health insurance soon — before I make myself ill.
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Comments
The NAR, "has now played a key role in shaping the Small Business Health Options Program."
Care to expand on exactly what that "key role" is?
Posted by: Jay Thompson | May 15, 2008 10:45 AM
I believe the main duty for your candidates should be lowering costs of health care. I am selling optional health insurance and life insurance in Canada and when I compare effect of yours 16% of GDP driven to health care to our 10%, I remain hesitating. Yes, we have serious problems with waits and lacking medical stuff, on the other hand, overall coverage is excellent...
Lorne
Posted by: Canada life insurance | May 15, 2008 06:07 PM