[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 50 (Monday, May 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT EMPLOYER MANDATES--IT MIGHT COST YOU YOUR JOB

  (Mr. HORN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, a recent poll in the Los Angeles Times asked 
respondents if they would support an employer mandate to fund universal 
health coverage for all Americans even if that might cost jobs. Not 
surprisingly, only one in six backed the idea. Yet President Clinton 
continues to press for this method of payment for his health plan.
  One of the most distressing symptoms of the already unhealthy Clinton 
health care plan--and the one that is giving most Americans a queasy 
stomach--is the requirement for employers to pay 80 percent of an 
employee's health bill.
  Hardest hit will be the small business men and women of America--the 
folks who employ most Americans. According to the National Federation 
of Independent Business--the malady known as employer mandates would be 
terminal to many of their members. They should know. They have a 
membership of 600,000 American small business owners and job 
generators. They are the Nation's largest small business advocacy 
organization.
  Recently, Teena Rasmussen, owner of the Paradise Flower Farms, Inc., 
of Hawaii--a business which employs 17 people--testified before a 
congressional committee about the effects on her business of Hawaii's 
17-year-old State mandated, near-universal access to health care.
  Ms. Rasmussen observed, ``When we first opened our doors, we provided 
our employees the best medical plan available.'' But, she went on to 
report,

       Every year we see double digit increases in health 
     premiums, wages only rising 2 or 3 percent, if at all, and 
     dwindling profits. For 5 years, we have had plans to start a 
     retirement fund for our employees, and each year mandated 
     benefits--by the State--have made us cancel those plans. This 
     past year, we did the only thing that was left to us--we 
     lowered our insurance plan to the minimum that the State 
     allowed.

  While President Clinton is busy selling the American people universal 
coverage, more benefits, and cheaper health care--all without taxes--
Mrs. Rasmussen knows better. It is employer mandates that will finance 
President Clinton's ``You can have something for nothing'' health plan. 
The result might give most Americans health coverage. But the end 
result will be that all too many Americans will get that health care at 
the price of their job.
  The prescription for adequate health care for all Americans should 
not make them sicker. The employer mandates requirement is bad 
medicine. Americans do not want it, and we in Congress should not force 
them to swallow it.

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