Making Health Insurance More Affordable

Darrell Issa (R-CA) was first elected to Congress in 2000. He currently serves on the House Government Reform Committee where he is Ranking Member of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where he serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management, and the House Judiciary Committee.

Among Darrell Issa’s many notable achievements, he is perhaps best known as the leader of the successful effort to recall former California Governor Gray Davis in 2003. He was also given the 1994 Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Inc. Magazine, Ernst & Young, and The San Diego Union-Tribune.

At a time when 47 million Americans lack health insurance, our nation’s health care system is overburdened, and health care costs are skyrocketing for small business owners and their employees, Congress must work toward innovative solutions. For example, health savings accounts (HSAs) and association health plans (AHPs) are both tools which can increase health care coverage in the short run and decrease health care costs in the long run, while promoting personal responsibility for health care and rejecting government-run, socialized medicine.

Two of the top reasons cited for why people do not have health insurance are the high cost of insurance and the lack of access to employer-sponsored insurance. The high cost of health insurance means that fewer employers are able to offer health benefits to their employees. It is more important than ever that we address increasing health care costs, so employers can offer health benefits to their employees without having to consider cost.

This year, I introduced a proposal which addresses some of the key issues of employer-obtained health care. The Health Care Incentive Act allows for an employer, who is required by state law to pay an employee at a rate higher than the federally mandated minimum wage, to offer his or her employees health care benefits and get a credit toward the minimum wage for doing so.

This proposal helps address the high cost to employers of obtaining health care for their employees, especially for those with family-run or small businesses, while encouraging low-wage employees to seek private health care solutions instead of remaining uninsured or relying on a government program.

With broader access to employer-sponsored insurance, more Americans will be able to have health insurance. This will decrease the burden that the uninsured place on our health care system, and eventually will lead to lower costs for care.