Full Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference on Health C...(aid I'm Tammy Rostov and I own a coffee ...),Health

My dad, a single parent, started the business 30 years ago. I was raised in the store and I'm proud to continue the tradition of running the family business, serving our customers and providing jobs for the people in the community.

My father instilled in me the value of treating an employee like family. For me, that means making sure our employees and their families have important benefits. So we offer health care and retirement benefits.

Lately, this hasn't been easy. On health care, our commitment to our employees has run up against the harsh reality of ever-rising costs. About four years ago, when the premiums rose beyond what the business could afford, we had to change to a high-deductible plan so that I could continue to offer benefits.

That cut our costs for that year, but over the last four years our premiums have gone up 80 percent, and I can't afford to pay those premiums.

Our health care system is failing small business. It's failing business owners like myself. It's failing our employees. It's failing our families. And it's threatening our bottom line.

That's why I want to thank these leaders in Congress for introducing this critical legislation. This proposal brings new hope for small business struggling with health care. It will help small business by giving us new choices, giving us new bargaining power with the insurance companies, increasing transparency, so we know what we're getting, and promoting accountability, so we'll know that we can count on our health care.

This bill would help my business and my employees in a number of important ways. We would be eligible to purchase coverage in the
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