Small Business Empowerment Act

Summary

Small Business Empowerment Act - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a national program to make quality, affordable health insurance available to small employers and self-employed individuals in a manner that will spread risk on a national basis, modeled on the federal employees health benefit program. Requires the Secretary to enter into a contract with an eligible entity for administration of the program. Authorizes such administrator to provide health insurance coverage to employees of participating employers and individuals. Directs such administrator to: (1) establish a pilot program to provide for the offering by carriers of a model health benefits plan; and (2) contract with the Institute of Medicine to assess the impact of the program on health care coverage costs and access. Sets minimum standards for program health benefits plans. Directs the Secretary to prescribe regulations providing for employer participation. Establishes the National Health Coverage Commission. Includes among Commission duties: (1) developing a model that ensures adequate coverage for medically necessary services, promotes disease and chronic disease management, and provides incentives for health provider compliance with best practices protocols; and (2) developing model cost sharing mechanisms that do not discriminate and that accommodate lower income individuals. Directs the Secretary and the program administrator to implement an educational campaign concerning the program. Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish a program to provide reinsurance to qualified carriers offering plans under this Act; (2) make specified large claim payments (from the Small Business Health Coverage Trust Fund established by this Act) and annual payments to such carriers; and (3) require the payment of monthly assessments by each issuer offering health insurance coverage.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 30 April 2008

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 30 April 2008

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 30 April 2008

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.