WASHINGTON, DC - In an effort to provide more families with quality, affordable health insurance, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today joined Senator John Kerry (D-MA) in introducing the Healthy Businesses, Healthy Workers Reinsurance Act of 2007. This legislation would protect business owners from skyrocketing health insurance costs by providing federal reimbursement of health care costs for catastrophic cases: those where patients must pay over $50,000 in a single year in healthcare costs. Under the plan, the federal government would help qualified small businesses pay up to 75 percent of medical bills in excess of $50,000 in exchange for an agreement that the business will offer health insurance coverage to all employees. The legislation would spread the risk of health insurance across the federal government, employers, and employees, reducing premiums by as much as 10 percent according to estimates by a 2004 study by the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute."Access to quality, affordable health care shouldn't be a privilege, it should be a right," said Reed, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. "The Healthy Businesses, Healthy Workers Reinsurance Act is a common sense measure that makes good economic sense. It will allow catastrophically ill patients to get potentially life-saving treatment. At the same time, it will help ease the financial burden on small businesses struggling to keep pace with skyrocketing health care costs."In the United States, one percent of all patients account for 25 percent of health care costs. Patients with catastrophic health expenses make up 20 percent of this population yet account for 80 percent of these costs. These patients, who are often the most in need of medical care, place a financial burden on many small businesses who in turn cannot afford to provide health care to employees. Today, just 48 percent of firms with between 3 and 9 employees offer health insurance benefits, down from 58 percent in 2001.In Rhode Island, health insurance premiums increased 75 percent from 2003 to 2006 while median earnings went up only 23 percent during that same time. The number of people who are uninsured has also grown in Rhode Island with more than 13 percent of residents under age 65 have no health insurance, an increase of 8.1 percent from 1999."When a family member has been diagnosed with a life threatening disease, the first thought should be 'how do we get the best treatment?', not 'can we afford to pay for this?' Our plan will ensure that more sick and injured workers get the health coverage they need and will help their employers pay for it," noted Reed. "By partnering with local businesses and providing them with "reinsurance," the federal government can ensure that more working families have access to comprehensive health benefits."Reinsurance means that if employers agree to offer all their workers preventative care and quality coverage, then the federal government will reimburse them for a significant portion of the costs of their catastrophically ill employees. To be considered, employers must ensure they will make insurance coverage available to all full-time workers, offer benefit plans that have annual deductibles not in excess of $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for families, pay at least 50% of the cost of coverage for all enrollees, and institute substantive prevention and chronic care management programs. Businesses that provide coverage through commercial health plans will also have to meet these criteria. The legislation would also pave the way to allow all employers that offer group health care coverage to be eligible for the program starting in 2009. These plans include small group health plans, firms that offer coverage to retirees, public employers, multi-employer plans under ERISA, and state purchasing exchanges that make coverage available to small-group and non-group markets on the same terms. "We are facing a health care crisis in Rhode Island and across the United States," concluded Reed. "Passing this bill would be a significant and much needed step toward help providing more hard working Americans with comprehensive health care coverage."-end-