Press Release: Health Insurance Industry Hosts Roundtable Discussion with Rhode Island Working Families and Small Business Owners

Press Release: Working families and small business owners today shared their health care stories and their priorities for health care reform at a roundtable discussion in Providence, Rhode Island, hosted by America's Health Insurance Plans' (AHIP) Campaign for an American Solution.

"Families and small business owners in Rhode Island and across the country are urging policymakers to make health care reform a top priority," said Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP.  "We presented our health care reform proposals and received valuable feedback from concerned citizens in Providence. Rhode Islanders agree that we need coverage for every American, coverage they can afford, and coverage they can keep."   

The roundtable discussion, which was held at the Rhode Island Quality Institute, was the seventh stop on the listening tour of AHIP's Campaign for an American Solution, a national grassroots and educational initiative launched in July to build support for workable health care reform based on core principles shared by the American people: coverage, affordability, quality, value, choice and portability.

Over the past two years, AHIP's Board of Directors has developed a range of comprehensive policy proposals to cover the uninsured, improve the quality and safety of health care, reform the individual health insurance market, and reduce rising health care costs.  At each stop on the listening tour, AHIP is sharing these proposals and soliciting feedback from the participants to ensure they are addressing the key health care challenges facing Americans across the country. 

To learn more about AHIP's health care reform proposals, visit www.AHIPBelieves.com.

Rhode Island -- and New England -- has fewer uninsured residents than the rest of the country, with 10% of Rhode Islanders and 11% of New Englanders lacking coverage, according to the 2008 National Health Statistics Report. In 2006, the average Rhode Island family paid 20% of the premium for health insurance coverage offered through work, or $2,387, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.  This was nearly $500 less than the national average.  Among small businesses in Rhode Island, 57% offer health coverage to employees, as opposed to the national average of 43%.