The heavy hitters in the health care reform debate took their case to a small Connecticut company Monday morning.
Senator Christopher Dodd, Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills conducted a roundtable discussion at the Connecticut Commercial Maintenance Company, a small firm that employees six people.
The owner of the company, Kevin Galvin, said he simply cannot afford health insurance for his workers and that this has prevented him from retaining and attracting good employees. He said it also makes it very difficult for him to compete at the global level, even though he's been in business for eighteen years.
Sebelius and Dodd said that small businesses are the engine that will lead this nation out of its recession and that these companies will be the foundation for creating good-paying jobs in the economy. But they said that for this to happen, small companies must be able to provide their workers with health care insurance at an affordable cost.
Dodd, who will undergo prostate surgery at the end of this month, said he'll be traveling the country in the interim, pushing for health care reform.
