The Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors’ “Health Care Action Pack” is designed to make it easier for members to contact their lawmakers about the issue.

The PHCC now has a special section on its Web site to keep members aware of the latest developments in the push to overhaul the U.S. health care and insurance industries.

The Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors’ “Health Care Action Pack” is designed to make it easier for members to contact their lawmakers about the issue.

The association said it does not support the U.S. House’s main health care bill as written. 

"PHCC and the business community is fighting hard to ensure that Congress doesn’t pass a government-run health plan that will threaten private health care,” said PHCC Government Relations Committee Chairwoman Jo Wagner.  “PHCC believes that health care is best administered on free market principles and supports meaningful health reforms that make quality health care more affordable and accessible, but we cannot support the $1.5 trillion health care package being debated in the U.S. House.”

President Barack Obama has made overhauling the U.S. health care system and expanding insurance coverage to most of the estimated 45 million Americans who lack it one of his top domestic policies.

The PHCC says it opposes the House bill due to its “pay or play” mandates on employers, additional taxes on small businesses and provisions for a major expansion of government-run health insurance.

Wagner encouraged members to tell their stories as small-business owners to Congress.

“PHCC members can have the greatest impact on this debate by talking about their own desire to provide their employees with quality health care options,” Wagner said.  “They can tell first-hand stories about how neither increased taxes nor government mandates can help them provide better health benefits to their employees.”