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Small Business Health Insurance Bill Introduced
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators — including Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) — earlier this month proposed legislation designed to make insurance more available and affordable for the 47.1 million employees of the nation’s 5.8 million small businesses.
The bill, S. 2795, would address the high cost of providing health care for employees, a vexing problem for many small businesses and the self-employed.
The legislation would:
- Allow small businesses to band together and spread the risk over a large number of participants in order to obtain lower premiums
- Provide tax credits for small business owners to offset contributions to employee premiums
- Ban rating patients' health status, with the aim of protecting businesses from large rate increases simply because one employee gets sick
To read the legislation, click here and enter S. 2795 in the box at the center of the page.
For more information, e-mail Erin Tario at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8413.
 Mark Your Calendar for the 2008 NAHB Legislative Conference
The 2008 NAHB Legislative Conference provides a unique opportunity for builders to meet with their members of Congress, discuss the issues that affect their business and bottom line and establish a lasting relationship with their elected federal officials.
The day-long conference on Wednesday, April 30 coincides with the NAHB spring board meeting in Washington, D.C.
Builders are encouraged to travel to the nation’s capital to urge their representatives and senators to support policies that stabilize housing, restore confidence in the credit markets and bolster the nation’s economy.
Members of Congress are being urged to:
- Support a temporary home buyer tax credit to boost sales, reduce excess inventory in housing markets and halt the dangerous erosion of house prices
- Enact Federal Housing Administration modernization to assist first-time and moderate-income home buyers and alleviate the mortgage credit crunch
- Adopt comprehensive reform legislation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to enable these financial institutions to provide badly needed liquidity to the mortgage market
- Expand the mortgage revenue bond program to help strapped borrowers refinance existing loans
- Allow businesses to carry back net operating losses for five years to save jobs and help them weather the economic storm
For more information and to register for NAHB’s 2008 Legislative Conference, click here; or e-mail Molly Murray at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8282.
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