Sununu co-sponsors health care legislation

U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-Waterville Valley) has announced that he will co-sponsor legislation that will attempt to make health care more affordable and accessible.

The "Making Health Care More Affordable Act" would allow small businesses to join together to negotiate insurance rates, it would also allow people to purchase insurance policies across state lines and provide a tax credit of up to $2,500 for individuals and $6,000 for a family of four. The bill is sponsored by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and U.S. Rep. Timothy Walberg (R-Mich.).

Sununu said he was sponsoring the legislation because the Democratic leadership has not attempted to deal with health care issues.

"If you look at Washington's agenda though the Democratic leadership in the Senate has done effectively nothing to address the problems with cost and affordability,  access to health insurance and bringing down the number of people who are uninsured," Sununu said on a conference call with reporters.

Yesterday the Senate passed a bill that would reverse a cut in Medicare reimbursements to doctors. Sununu voted against the bill and has been the subject of an ad campaign by the American Medical Association for his vote.

Sununu, who is a tough battle for re-election against former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-Madbury), added that Shaheen would increase the number of government health care mandates.

"Barack Obama and Jeanne Shaheen are talking about government bureaucracy, more government mandates and that is not the answer for families or small businesses in New Hampshire."

When asked how many people would be insured by the bill, Sununu admitted he did not know an exact figure but argued the bill would reduce the number of insured Americans. "That's something that's very hard to predict, but there's no question it would bring down the number of insured because many of those who are underinsured or uninsured work in small businesses," he said.