The CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that the organization representing more than three million businesses would use “all of our resources” to fight single-payer proposals:

“We also have to respond to calls for government-run, single-payer health care, because it just doesn’t work,” Donohue said during his annual “State of American Business” address.

“We’ll use all our resources to make sure that we’re careful there,” he said, though his previously released prepared remarks had said the Chamber would use all of its resources to “combat it.”

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is almost ten years old and in that time has done nothing to make healthcare more affordable for the citizens of the United States as a whole. So, what is the solution that many are proposing? Further extend the government control of the healthcare system since the ACA has had so much success.

Some, like the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, see the harm that moving to a single-payer system would impose on our economy.

Here are the health care goals of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

  • Advancing successful ideas from the private sector that reduce costs, advance quality, and improve health

  • Promoting reforms that provide relief to employers and employees as the ACA is implemented including:

    • Reducing the harm of the employer mandate by restoring the 40-hour work week;
    • Repealing taxes that increase premiums and cost jobs such as the 40% excise tax, medical device tax, and the health insurance tax; and
    • Improving flexibility for tax-preferred accounts that encourage careful health care spending like FSAs, HSAs, and HRAs

  • Raising awareness of the positive effects of wellness and chronic disease management programs in the workplace to improve health and productivity

  • Expanding access to coverage and services by strengthening the employer-sponsored system

“Provide relief to employers and employees” has been the focus of many of the new federal guidelines and recommendations the Trump administration has introduced. One of these new guidelines was making it easier to access and use “association health plans.” These plans allow individuals and small business to band together to purchase insurance at a much cheaper price. The Chambers of Commerce in states could offer enrollment in these plans to small business owners and self-employed owners, those who were hit hardest by the regulations implemented through the ACA. That is, however, if states don’t impose regulations which would strip associations of the right to sell insurance for its members.