FULLER CLARK, BURLING, MCLEOD: SUNUNU'S HEALTH CARE PROPOSAL WILL HURT SMALL BUSINESSES

For Immediate Release
July 15, 2008

(Manchester, NH) - The Berlin Daily Sun reports today that state elected officials and a Laconia businessman denounced John Sununu's health care proposal yesterday, pointing out that the proposal would hurt small businesses in the state and "preempt state insurance laws and change rates based on a person's age or health status." [Berlin Daily Sun, 7/15/08] State Senators Martha Fuller Clark and Pete Burling joined Representative and Senate candidate Martha McLeod and Laconia businessman Pat Wood in opposing Sununu's proposal because it would drive insurance costs up, similar to when the state "repealed the community rating system, in 2003, allowing insurance companies to vary insurance rates based on the health of the workers." [Berlin Daily Sun, 7/15/08]

"John Sununu has voted 90% of the time with George Bush, and his loyalty has gotten us sky high gas prices, a recession, and exactly zero forward movement on fixing health care," said Senator Pete Burling. "In the last three weeks, Sununu has voted twice against fixing Medicare reimbursement rates, endangering access to health care for over 200,000 New Hampshire seniors and disabled individuals. Now he's proposing an election-year gimmick to distract from those votes, but the proposal would actually do great harm to New Hampshire small businesses. New Hampshire faces great challenges on health care, and John Sununu is just part of the problem."

Sununu's proposal would explicitly supersede state laws regulating the insurance industry. New Hampshire has already seen what happens when state laws are undermined in this way -- the 2003 repeal of the state's community rating law caused insurance premiums for small businesses to skyrocket. According to a New Hampshire Insurance Department study, repealing that law caused insurance premiums for almost one third of small businesses in New Hampshire to increase by 30% or more. And 7% of very small businesses saw premiums increase by a staggering 70% or more. A 2006 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out that the consequences of proposals such as Sununu's "are not merely theoretical. The experience of the state of New Hampshire essentially serves as a real-life experiment" for this type of proposal. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "Lessons from New Hampshire," April, 2006]

"As a State Representative from Franconia, I'm concerned that Sununu's proposal would have especially negative consequences to small businesses in the North Country who are already struggling to pay for health insurance," said State Representative and State Senate candidate Martha McLeod. "This proposal would severely undermine New Hampshire's state insurance laws that protect businesses in the North Country from insurance industry discrimination. It's bad for the North Country, bad for New Hampshire, and Sununu should know better."

The Nashua Telegraph reported that Sununu announced the proposal "to tamper down the stories whacking his Medicare vote." [Nashua Telegraph, 7/13/08] The proposal is nothing more than an election-year gimmick: it has just one co-sponsor, right wing Republican Sen. Wicker of Mississippi, who is facing a strong reelection challenge himself. Sununu signed onto the bill just three weeks ago in an attempt to cover a 12-year congressional record of inaction on health care.