The Business Council and the Chamber Alliance of New York State (CANYS) have launched a new electronic advocacy initiative in support of two bills designed to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses.
One of the bills (S.3795-Seward/A.7413-Morelle) is designed to make affordable health insurance more accessible for sole proprietors by preserving sole proprietors' longstanding access to group-rated health insurance coverage. This measure would allow the smallest of businesses to continue to purchase insurance through employer associations such as chambers of commerce.
The second bill (S.1532-Seward/A.7427-Morelle) would give small businesses a 20 percent tax credit on premiums they pay to buy health insurance for their employees.
This is the third year in which The Business Council has supplemented its traditional advocacy efforts with an "e-advocacy" campaign that harnesses the communications power of the Internet.
It works like this:
Anyone interested in voicing support for the two bills can do so by visiting The Business Council's Web site (www.bcnys.org) and clicking on the button labeled "Help making health insurance more affordable and accessible." Doing that will take visitors to a page where, by answer a few basic questions, users can automatically generate messages of support for these bills.
Messages generated from this Web page are automatically faxed to users' own lawmakers, to legislative leaders, and to key administrators in state government. Users can also move the letters to their own letterhead, personalize them, and mail them directly.
The effort, which began May 3, is targeted in particular at small-businesses members of The Business Council, chambers of commerce around the state and their members, and other associations, according to Denise Murphy McGraw, director of regional affairs for The Council, who is coordinating the effort.
Two years ago, The Council and PinPoint Communications of Rensselaer County pioneered electronic advocacy with a successful campaign to persuade lawmakers to enacted a broad packaged of tax cuts. That campaign produced more than 50,000 letters to legislative leaders and key staff in Albany.
Last year, a second successful efforts focused on persuading lawmakers to repeal the state's energy gross receipts tax.
The Chamber Alliance of New York State (CANYS) is an association of local and regional chambers of commerce around the state that advocates for chamber interests and provides professional development opportunities to its members. It is an affiliate of The Business Council.