Statement of National Business Group...( WASHINGTON May 22 -- Helen Darling P...),Health

WASHINGTON, May 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Helen Darling, President of the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), issued the following statement. NBGH is the national association representing 300 large employers - including 60 of the Fortune 100 - providing health benefits to more than 55 million Americans workers, dependents, and retirees:

"Last week we sent out a press release responding to what we believed were some mischaracterizations in the media about the amount of agreement among all participants at the Senate Finance Committee's Roundtable on Financing Health Care Reform. The press accounts indicated that all witnesses supported limiting the tax exclusion for employee health benefits. We wanted to correct what seemed to be an imbalance in the press reports, but our statement was itself too strong and came across as more negative than was appropriate. The comments in no way were meant to reflect on the admirable work of the Senate Finance Committee or our deep respect for Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley. Our organization is strongly committed to national healthcare reform and we know that they and the Senate Finance Committee have to grapple with very hard decisions about financing health reform. We are very impressed with the many excellent ideas for health delivery system reform and ways to control costs in the proposals. As an organization, we recognize that all options are on the table and that all stakeholders will have to give up something to achieve a more effective, efficient, affordable health care system. We look forward to continuing to work with the Congress and the Administration on this historic opportunity for meaningful national health care reform."