Small Business Leaders Speak Out for SB34 Amendment 1
‘A Strong State Based Health Insurance Marketplace Levels the Playing Field for Small Businesses’
A Press Conference today, March 19, 2013, 10:45 a.m., at the Stratton Office Building, Room A1, in Springfield, Illinois.
In support of SB34, leaders from the Campaign for Better Health Care’s Small Business Health Care Consortium along with State Senator David Koehler (D-Peoria) and other Senate sponsors will hold a press conference at 10:45AM in Room A1 of the Stratton Office Building in Springfield on Tuesday, March 19.
Senate Bill 34 (SB34) establishes a robust, pro-consumer and pro-small business health insurance marketplace in Illinois. The health insurance marketplace (exchange) will be the one-stop insurance shop for more than a million Illinoisans. SB34 ensures that the marketplace is governed by a diverse board that represents women, small businesses, communities of color, labor, public health, people with disabilities, and consumers, and provides for accountability and a certification process of the insurance industry selling plans on the new marketplace.
At the press conference will be State Senator Dave Koehler and other Senators, along with members of the Campaign for Better Health Care’s Small Business Health Care Consortium including Springfield small business owner Mark Burris, President Larry Ivory of the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce, and Linda Forman for the National Association of Women Business Owners Chicago.
On November 16, 2012, the State of Illinois filed a “blueprint” with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It stated that beginning January 1, 2014, Illinois would embark on a State-Federal Partnership Marketplace (exchange), and then a State Marketplace beginning on January 1, 2015. For Illinois to embark on a State Marketplace the Illinois General Assembly must enact legislation establishing a state Governing Board, and the financing of the operations of a State Marketplace. SB 34 would fulfill this requirement and would establish an effective, fair, balanced and accountable marketplace.
The purpose of the press conference is to demonstrate support for the small business community for SB34, which will establish a health insurance marketplace in Illinois that offers a fair approach for small businesses and consumers and accountability of the insurance industry.
About the Small Business Health Care Consortium
As a project of the Campaign for Better Health Care, we are a tax-exempt, non-partisan coalition of small businesses that serves to educate about the impact of health reform, encourage small business friendly legislation and regulation and enable the collective voice of small businesses to have a direct impact on controlling health care costs in Illinois. www.cbhconline.org/smallbusiness
About Campaign for Better Health Care
We believe that accessible, affordable, quality health care is a basic human right for all people. The Campaign for Better Health Care is the state’s largest coalition representing over 300 diverse organizations, organizing to help create and advocate for an accessible, quality health care system for all. For more information, visit www.cbhconline.org.
