LEGISLATIVE ISSUES — CAN A LAME DUCK FLY?

HEALTHCARE: PIA/GATF’s Lyons says it is unlikely that the Democrats will put forth legislation embracing market-based reforms, such as association health plans (AHPs). Lyons says the Democrats have been focused more on laying out their plans for other healthcare issues, such as Medicare and drug importation.

She notes that the House has passed AHPs eight times in the last 12 years via bipartisan vote, but the trend will not continue under the new majority. On the Senate side, Lyons doesn’t envision small business health plans (SBHPs) being revived; the Dems’ alternative Lincoln-Durbin bill introduced this past year will likely return in the 110th Congress. Lincoln-Durbin uses the pooling concept, but calls for considerable government funding, while the PIA-backed SBHP was predominantly a market-driven reform, Lyons says.

Additionally, Congress is likely to revisit proposals concerning employer-sponsored healthcare and mandated benefits.

“We may have to defend against healthcare reforms that our members have traditionally opposed, which might be a co-pay or government run universal healthcare-type initiative,” Lyons remarks.

LABOR: This is an issue in which the PIA/GATF is taking a defensive stand. A union-backed initiative seeks to remove secret ballot elections on the question of organizing and replacing it with a “card check” campaign, where worker signatures are collected in order to garner a majority. Lyons points out that, statistically, unionizing efforts are far less successful through secret ballot than they are via card check elections.

Losing anonymity can open the door for strong-arm tactics and other heavy-handed influencing tactics by would-be union organizers.

“Card check elections take away anonymity, and a lot of anecdotal evidence shows that it leads to coercion and intimidation,” Lyons adds. “Given that union membership continues to dwindle, they’re looking to gain their market share and the Miller-Kennedy card checks are one way to do it. With the changes of control in Congress, both (George) Miller (D-CA) and (Ted) Kennedy (D-MA) have gained chairmanships over the committees of jurisdiction on this issue.”