By Amy Masters

The SBAC Health Care Committee, led by Steve Banke of 3Points, along with other dedicated SBAC members have been amazingly effective in pushing the Illinois Senate this veto session to pass HB 3976 to create small business health care co-ops. Read more about this bill here. While major strides have been made in the areas of legislative contact, coalition-building, and grassroots outreach, we still need your help to get HB 3976 passed.

HB 3976 passed the Illinois House earlier this year with strong bi-partisan support from across the state. At present, the bill is stalled in the Senate and must first be called for a vote and passed by the Senate Insurance Committee, chaired by Senator William Haine (D-Alton), before proceeding to the Senate floor. Senator Jeffrey Schoenberg is sponsoring the bill, and SBAC members have been successful at contacting and encouraging other senators to co-sponsor the bill, including Senators Annazette Collins, Jacqueline Collins, Susan Garrett, Linda Holmes, Dan Kotowski, John Mulroe, Michael Noland, Martin Sandoval, Ira Silverstein, and Heather Steans. More sponsors are still needed in order to get this bill called and passed through the Senate.

While major strides have been made in pushing HB 3976, we still need your help to get this passed. Here’s what you can do:
1. Call or Visit your state senator’s office (go to Illinois State Board of Elections to find your senator at http://ow.ly/78R38) by phone or email/mail correspondence and urge him/her to co-sponsor and/or support the bill. Consider making a trip to Springfield to personally lobby your senator for the bill during Veto Session. Post as a comment to this blog article or forward responses to Steve Banke at sbanke@3points.com.