Health Care

Employer Immunity from Lawsuits
Maintain employer immunity from lawsuits for medical and economic decisions made by HMO's, and support legislation to strengthen administrative appeals of denials of care within the HMO structure as an alternative to lawsuits which may increase costs to employers.

Denials of Care
In order to maintain quality of care, the HMO and/or insurer must have the burden of proving that proposed treatments are harmful or ineffective whenever denials of care are based on the lack of medical necessity.

Mandated Health Benefits
Lower insurance costs by resisting additional state mandated health benefits in New York. NYS already has 34 mandated health benefits increasing health insurance premiums an estimated 15-20% or $1,066. Any effort to provide additional mandated benefits must be done at the federal level, where additional provisions would apply to all employers. Such a law would put small businesses in New York on an equal footing with their competitors in other states.

Health Savings Through Technology
Voluntary incentives for adoption of compatible information technology systems by Hospitals and medical providers in the New York Metropolitan area should be created in order to eliminate costly medical mistakes, improve quality of care and control the rising costs of health care which accounts for 15% of the nation's economic output.

New Health Insurance Tax Credit
Create a new tax credit to let small businesses credit 20% of their health insurance costs against their state income tax. The high cost of health insurance has resulted in employers unable to provide coverage to the 18% of New Yorkers under age 65 who are uninsured even though three quarters of those workers have full time jobs.

Health Insurance Tax Incentives
Current laws providing government tax incentives only to companies that do not provide health insurance benefits, unfairly pass the cost of those incentives onto the companies that do provide coverage. Such incentives should be provided to all companies that provide such benefits.

"Healthy New York" Plan
All businesses in New York should have access to the Healthy New York plan, or a similar product affordable to all small business.

Hospital Closings
The Chamber supports efforts to ensure a continuation of timely access to quality care for the entire Queens community during any necessary consolidation of hospital facilities in Queens.