Expanding the coverage
of Nevada’s employees
Reducing health care costs are key
By Christina Dugan
Government
affairs director,
Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce
(From testimony given before the Nevada Legislature’s
interim committee on healthcare insurance expansion)
OUR MEMBERS typically cite the escalating cost of
healthcare among their top policy priorities.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many members who
currently do not offer health insurance for their
employees cite the high cost as the main obstacle.
As a result, the Chamber believes one the most
effective means of decreasing the ranks of Nevada’s
working uninsured is to bring down the overall cost
of healthcare. National data suggests that for every
1% increase in health insurance roughly 300,000
Americans will be priced out of healthcare insurance
and join the ranks of the uninsured. In Nevada,
estimates show that a 1% increase in costs leads to
over 2,000 additional uninsured, over 65 lost jobs,
and costs employers providing healthcare an
additional $190 per worker… [more]
Commentary from NPRI
Nevada lawmakers supporting
assaults on scientific research
By Steven Miller
Nevada’s lawmakers are nice people.
They would never walk into your house and—say—grab
your stereo without permission and run down the street
with it.
They also—we can be relatively sure—wouldn’t encourage
other Nevadans to do so.
On the other hand, what if your property wasn’t
physical, but
intellectual?
What if you’d written and copyrighted some software? A
story? A song?
What if you were, say, Nevada’s Altair
Nanotechnologies, and after years of research you’d
achieved patents on ground-breaking new processes that
helped clients like Nevada’s Titanium Metal
Corporation produce its namesake metal more cost
effectively? And helped other clients do environmental
remediation, make better solar cells, or produce
better pharmaceuticals?
Would Nevada lawmakers respect your intellectual
property rights?
Maybe. Maybe not. It apparently all depends on
whether they think attacking your patent or
copyright protections might titillate enough
thoughtless voters…[more]
