The health care debate continues.

Maryland Chamber Vice President of Government Affairs will be on the Marc Steiner show today from Noon to 1 p.m. to discuss health care policy. Other guests will be Vincent DeMarco, Executive Director of the Maryland Citizen’s Health Initiative and Dr. Jonathan Weiner, Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Tune in to 88.1 FM or listen online at www.wypr.org. Call in to support the pro-business health care initiatives. Email your comments to the Marc Steiner show at thesteinershow@wypr.org, or you can call in to 410-662-8780.

The Chamber supports a number of options to help make health insurance more affordable, including:

• Cost containment – The solution is not simply spending more money. The United States already spends a higher percentage of gross domestic product on health care than any other industrialized country. We need to spend health care dollars more wisely and avoid expenditures that are not medically necessary.
• Encourage consumer directed health care, with consumers knowledgeable about the cost and benefits of the health care they are consuming.
• Increased use of HSAs and similar products to provide a lower cost alternative to traditional health insurance. Note that Massachusetts will be developing “mandate lite” reduced benefit policies for individuals ages 19 to 26.
• Medical liability reform to assure access to health care and reduce defensive medicine that consumes up to 10% of health insurance premiums.
• Review insurance laws to help promote competition.
• An individual mandate for high income individuals who lack health insurance.
• Encouraging greater use of Section 125 plans by employers to enable individuals to pay for health insurance on a pre-tax basis.