HEALTH CARE

Rising health care costs are important to Southern Indiana residents and I have worked vigorously to lessen this growing burden on my constituents. With experience as a small business employer I am well aware of the incredible burden that rising health care costs place on families and small business owners. I am greatly concerned with the growing responsibility of businesses to provide health care access to employees that is both comprehensive and affordable.

• Large companies and unions are able to pool the resources among their employees to provide health care at a reduced cost. I co-sponsored H.R. 525, which allows multiple small businesses the opportunity to pool their resources in similar fashion to provide health care access to employees at a reasonable price. This bill passed the house in July of 2005 but the debate is stalled in the Senate.

• I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 994, a bill to allow the payment of health care premiums with non-taxable money. This will encourage all individuals and families to purchase health insurance but without the burden of additional taxation.

• With a similar strategy in mind, I co-sponsored H.R. 4625, the Health Care Freedom of Choice Act. This bill would provide for full deductibility of all health care costs that are not covered by insurance providers. This action would lower total health care costs to the general public through added encouragement for everyone to purchase health insurance. Elimination of uninsured health care patients would significantly lower the cost to other individuals as they no longer are required to pay for their fellow uninsured citizens.