“Thank you to our witnesses for joining the subcommittee to discuss today’s subject: a healthy workforce: access and affordability in health care sponsored by the employer.
“As a Competence Committee on the members of the Health Committee sponsored by employers, members of the employers’ -sponsored health care committee understand that employers want what is best for their employees.
“Although it was not required to offer health coverage, small businesses often choose to do so in order to attract and keep the best talents.
“According to NFIB, 56% of small employers offer health insurance and 89% of small businesses with more than 30 employees offer health services.
“As the owner of a small business myself, I learned that investing in the health of my employees has paid long-term dividends, both in the productivity and morale of the company.
“Unfortunately, it becomes more difficult for companies of all sizes to offer competitive health care advantages to their employees. I have often said that competition is the only way to reduce costs.
“According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, employee family coverage bonuses have increased by 7% in each of the last two years.
“The cost increase has a disproportionate impact on small businesses because they are less able to absorb the impacts of the increase in health care costs.
“Eighty-four percent of small employers find it difficult to manage the cost of their health plans, and 98% think that the cost of their health plans will become unbearable during the next decade.
“The Biden-Harris inflationary program, determined to link the hands of employers with costly and heavy regulations, has contributed to the challenges of health care costs that small businesses are facing today.
“Fortunately, President Trump and the Républicains de la Chambre have common sense solutions to offer the flexibility of small businesses to extend access and affordability in their health care offers.
“The first solution is to extend access to the association’s health plans or to AHPs.
“An AHP allows employers to come together to buy health coverage.
“In 2018, the Trump administration finalized a rule that has expanded the availability of AHP to more companies and the self -employed. However, this rule was unfortunately linked to the courts and finally reversed by President Biden.
“The results speak for themselves. While the Trump rule was in effect, new AHPs produced savings that could reach 29% on average, while AHPS real estate agent, like the one Ms. Shields will speak today, has experienced average savings up to 50%.
“Congress should ensure that AHPs are a viable option for small businesses and self -employed workers for the years to come, which is why it is important for the Congress to adopt the law on the health plans of the associations of President Walberg.
“Companies of all sizes can use stop-loss or reassurance to isolate themselves from unexpected high medical complaints.
“However, the States led by Democrats have sought too much to regularly regularly have self-assured health plans using reinsurance by artificially classifying these plans as fully assured, with the expected result to remove the ability of small businesses to innovate and contain costs.
“The law on the protection of Dr. Onder’s self-assurance specifies that self-assured health plans with reinsurance are always self-assured health plans.
“As we will hear the testimonies today, the COVVI-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for companies to innovate by widening the cover options of the TV.
“The law on the expansion of chairman’s Walberg President services for employers would return to employers this important tool used to extend the roof options and reduce costs.
“Employers have also innovated by participating in direct contracts with suppliers, removing intermediaries and bureaucracy, and allowing employers to personalize their coverage options to meet the health care needs of their employees. This audience will examine the ability of expanding companies to use innovative coverage models such as direct contracts.
“Finally, this committee, on a bipartite basis, has historically stood that Erisa’s pre-emption of the Act respecting states was fundamentally important. The Erisa pre-emption has enabled the self-assured health plans to design their plans in a way that suits them best for more than 50 years.
“We are impatient to work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labor to defend the Erisa preemption.
“I hope that our Democratic colleagues will work with us to offer more options, more flexibility and more opportunities to offer high quality affordable coverage to their employees.
“I thank the members of the subcommittee for joining this important discussion, and I can’t wait to testify to our witnesses.”