HCAN

 

HCAN

Media Release

    
For Immediate Release Contact Phone
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Eve Weissman  732-246-4772 x22

NJ Consumer, Health Care, Labor, Faith-Based Groups and the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) Campaign Release New Report: 672,782 New Jerseyans Would Lose Health Insurance under McCain

John McCain's plan to tax health benefits would accelerate dissolution of employer-based health insurance coverage

Highland Park, NJ — Today, Wednesday, October 8th, consumer, health care, labor and faith-based groups in NJ and the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) Campaign, released a new report from the Economic Policy Institute during a Tele Press Conference Call. The report finds that as many as 672,782 New Jerseyans would lose employer-sponsored health insurance under the McCain health care plan. The report concludes that because the centerpiece of McCain's plan would impose taxes on health insurance benefits — which are now untaxed — employers would be less likely to offer them.

"John McCain's health care plan would be a disaster for average Americans. Encouraging employers to stop offering health benefits by getting rid of tax exemptions and raising taxes on employees is not a solution that benefits anyone other than the insurance industry," said Eve Weissman, Health Care Campaign Coordinator for NJ Citizen Action. "McCain wants to throw more people out into the private insurance market where we pay more in premiums, co-pays, and deductibles and get less coverage for our money. And then there are the people with pre-existing conditions who won't be able to get coverage at all. John McCain's health care plan isn't more of the same. It's worse than the same."

An estimated 165 million U.S. residents under the age of 65 currently receive insurance coverage through their em-ployer. A linchpin of this system is the tax exclusion that allows premiums purchased by employer-based plans to be paid tax free. The centerpiece of John McCain's plan for health care reform would end this exclusion. (Economic Policy Institute, "McCain Plan Accelerates Erosion in Employer Sponsored Health Insurance: A state by state analysis of losses," p. 5.)

Jean Pierce, Public Policy Staff for the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE); Michele Jaker, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey; Martin Schwartz, Director of the New Jersey Region of the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring; Lou Kimmel, Director of Field and Mobilization for New Labor participated on the call. In addition, Ariadna Herrera, a member of New Labor shared her personal story about the difficulty of finding affordable health insurance in New Jersey's insurance market.

"The report by the EPI Policy Center provides a chilling, objective analysis of the impact of the McCain health plan on New Jersey," said Schwartz. "If implemented, it would... be particularly burdensome to small businesses, struggling in the current economic climate to provide health care benefits for their workers; they would be crushed by the added tax in the McCain plan, forcing them in larger numbers to drop these benefits. We can — we must — do better than this."

"Ending the tax exclusion for premiums purchased by employer-based plans would cost somewhere between 11 and 27 million people their employer coverage nationwide," said Elise Gould from the Economic Policy Institute. "These losses hit states particularly hard with high tax rates and/or high shares of employment in smaller firms. All in all, this proposed change would significantly accelerate the decline of employer-provided coverage, which has already shrunk by 5.4% of the under-65 population just since 2000."

Some additional findings of the report:

"It's hard to think of any other change that could do more harm than this one to a health care system that's already weakened," commented EPI economist Josh Bivens, regarding removal of the current tax incentive. "It will cost millions of Americans their current employer-based health insurance, and it provides no alternative source of coverage that matches the protections offered by employer plans."

Currently, the least expensive health insurance premiums available through New Jersey's individual market for plans with a $1,000.00 deductible range from $7,803.24 per year (Oxford) to $12,144.00 per year (Aetna) up to $15,193.56 (Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield).

Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is a national grassroots campaign made up of millions of individuals and more than 275 organizations committed to winning a guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all in 2009. HCAN's steering committee includes ACORN, AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America's Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Community Change, MoveOn.org, National Education Association, National Council of La Raza, National Women's Law Center, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, UFCW, and USAction. Health Care for America Now is currently asking Members of Congress, "Which Side Are You On? — the side of quality, affordable health care for all or the side of leaving us alone to fend for ourselves in the bureaucratic, unregulated insurance market? HCAN's Statement of Common Purpose includes 10 principles the campaign believes will lay the foundation for effective, comprehensive health care reform in 2009.

Health Care for America Now (HCAN), a section 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, is a broad coalition of nonprofit and political organizations that are working to promote quality, affordable health care for all Americans. HCAN and each of its members conducts and funds only activities appropriate to its tax and election law status.

New Jersey Citizen Action is the State's largest, independent citizen watchdog coalition, working to protect and expand the rights of individuals and families and to ensure that government officials respond to the needs of people rather than the interests of those with money and power. Through organizing campaigns that promote economic, social, racial and political justice, NJCA encourages the active involvement of New Jersey residents in challenging the public and private institutions and agencies that impact our lives.

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