WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Republican leaders today said the first health care priority for Congress should be providing affordable health care coverage to Americans who lack basic health insurance. According to new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau today, the number of Americans who have no health insurance increased to 41.2 million Americans last year, an increase of 1.4 million people. The statistics also show that the share of the population covered by employer-sponsored health care coverage declined from 64 to 63 percent.

“The ranks of the uninsured have swelled again, in part, because excessive government mandates and trial lawyer lawsuits drive up costs and put health coverage out of reach for families with limited means,” said House Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH). “The new numbers show the political games played by Democrat leaders, who’ve fought against congressional efforts to expand access to health care, have had devastating consequences for America’s working families.”

“The number of people who lack health insurance in our nation is simply unacceptable,” said Boehner. “We have to ensure that all Americans have affordable health insurance coverage options, and our primary goal should be creating affordable options to help the uninsured.”

“First and foremost we have to look at solutions that will help the uninsured obtain affordable health insurance for themselves and their families,” said Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX). “Instead of focusing on new mandates on employers or health care providers, we have to focus on real solutions that make it easier for small employers to offer more benefits as well as creating new options that expand consumer choice.”

The Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee has held a series of hearings on how employers and employees are responding to rising health care costs, which rose 13 percent in 2001, and how those costs have contributed to the decline in health care coverage. A recent July 9 hearing focused on proposals to increase access to quality health care for the million Americans who currently have no health insurance.

One of the solutions highlighted at the hearing was the Small Business Health Fairness Act (H.R. 1774), which would create association health plans (AHPs) to allow small businesses to join together through bona-fide trade associations to purchase health insurance.

“Small firms deserve the opportunity to obtain high quality health insurance that is competitively priced,” said Johnson. “We need to bring Fortune 500 health benefits to the nation’s Main Street small businesses and their employees.”

On August 2, 2001, the House approved a compromise patients’ bill of rights that would hold health plans accountable while preventing frivolous, unlimited lawsuits against employers and unions that voluntarily provide health coverage to families. The measure gives patients a rapid medical review process for disputed denials of care, ensuring that medical decisions will be made by independent doctors and physicians, not lawyers or HMO bureaucrats. It also included initiatives to increase access to health care and reduce the ranks of the uninsured such as AHPs and medical savings accounts.

Unfortunately, the approach taken by Senate Democrats puts the interest of trial lawyers ahead of patients by refusing to support reasonable caps on health care lawsuits. Their approach would, for the first time, subject employers and health plans to new lawsuits in state courts with no limits on damages or protection from frivolous lawsuits.

“The House passed a patients’ rights compromise supported by President Bush and negotiated by Reps. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) and Ernie Fletcher (R-KY),” said Boehner. “But Democrat leaders refused to support it because it included a reasonable cap on trial lawyers’ ability to profit from multi-million dollar health care lawsuits. Patients and families continue to take a back seat to trial lawyers on Democrat leaders’ priority list.”

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