A Health Care Reform Spokesperson For The U.S. Chamber

By Patty Briguglio

In recent weeks, I have been privileged to serve as a spokesperson for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing the chamber’s views on health care reform and its effect on small businesses.

I support the U.S. Chamber’s Campaign for Responsible Health Reform in North Carolina. There is a real need for a respectful dialogue with a focus on what is good for American businesses and our health care system. Small businesses are critical to our nation’s economic infrastructure and should be at the table in any discussion that will have such a sweeping impact on businesses, health care and our economy as a whole.

Moving To The Airwaves:
Recently, I have moved the discussion platform from television to the radio airwaves, speaking on both Rhonda Bellamy of WAAV in Wilmington and Viewpoints with Lockwood Phillips in Morehead City. After speaking with multiple callers on both shows, it is clear to me that people truly are fired up about the effects of health care reform on small businesses.

How Will Reforms Affect Small Businesses?
The proposed reforms to health care will create a government-run plan that could decimate employer-sponsored health insurance, which is the backbone of our nation’s health care system, potentially impacting coverage for 160 million Americans. We need to build on what works – employer-sponsored health care – and fix what’s broken.

I still do not understand why our government is pushing for a program that we cannot afford. Government-run health care will:

• Raise taxes on small businesses that cannot afford to offer health insurance
• Raise personal income taxes on small business owners who earn more than $280,000 in personal income
• Tax certain employer-sponsored health plans

How does government-run health care benefit small business owners? Simply put, it does not. Nor does it benefit the employees of these businesses, since their salaries and benefits are so sensitive to their company’s bottom line.

Let Your Voice Be Heard:
I encourage small business owners across the nation to speak out about the effects of this legislation and make your voice heard. Write your local representative in Congress and tell him or her about your concerns regarding health care reform’s effects on your small business. Together we can make a difference