NFU Joins State Farm Leaders to Call on Congress to Pass Health Care Reform

[Joanne98]

For Immediate Release: November 24, 2009

Contact: 202-554-1600

WASHINGTON (Nov. 24, 2009) – Today, National Farmers Union, ranchers and rural residents, joined farm leaders from Arkansas, Maine and Nebraska to call on Congress to pass health care reform. An emphasis was placed on the urgent need to protect family farms. Increasing prices for premiums and a lack of competition in the health insurance market is threatening many farmers’ and ranchers’ livelihoods as they face medical bankruptcies or are forced to seek other work to gain insurance.



“Farmers often have to purchase insurance for themselves and their families in the individual market where premiums are higher,” said Roger Johnson, National Farmers Union President. “Farmers also tend to be older and are more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions, and private insurers consider them to be in a high risk profession.”



Insurance premiums on average have risen more than 75 percent from 2000-2007 in Arkansas, Louisiana, Maine and Nebraska. The increases are even greater in the individual and small group market available to most farmers.



“Nebraska family farmers and ranchers are being squeezed out of business by health care premiums, deductibles, and medical exclusions that continue to go up faster than farm income or the cost of living. Two companies control 69% of the Nebraska’s health care market, one with 42% and the other with 25% market share. The question on the table is: “How do we bring competition and cost control to health care in Nebraska?” If the public option is not the best way solve the lack of competition problem, then what is the alternative? No reform is not an answer we can afford,” said John Hansen, President of the Nebraska Farmers Union.



Individual, small-group and geographic rating reforms will make coverage better and policies cheaper for farmers, their families and their employees.



“We need good, affordable insurance and the choice that will come with an exchange and a public option,” said Annie Cheatham, President of the New England Farmers Union.



NFU has long called for a comprehensive, meaningful health care reform bill that provides universal, affordable and accessible coverage for all Americans, regardless of health status, employment or financial situation.



Also on the call was Olly Neal, Vice President of the Arkansan Land and Farm Development Corporation. Neal had the following to say regarding health care, “Small farmers in our organization face challenges everyday trying to make ends meet. When we can’t afford insurance, or the insurance we have is inadequate, we are one illness away from economic disaster.” Neal added, “In Arkansas, there were 13,484 personal bankruptcies just last year, a majority of those are usually from medical expenses.”

http://nfu.org/news/2009/11/24/nfu-joins-state-farm-leaders-to-call-on-congress-to-pass-health-care-reform.html