Just hours before President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on health care, the U.S. Chamber re-sent to lawmakers a letter on health care reform with double the number of signatures from a previous letter.

The September 9 letter, with 3,159 signatures from local chambers of commerce, associations, and small businesses from all 50 states, expressed concern with the current health care proposals before Congress, stating that they "would not improve the system, but jeopardize the parts of the system that currently work."

Specifically, the letter outlines three major concerns of business–a government-run plan that would increase costs and limit choice; an employer health care mandate that would kill jobs and lower wages; and a lack of any real effort to lower health care costs.

 "Businesses across the country are increasingly concerned with legislation in Congress that would increase health care costs," said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of Government Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Health care reform is critically important, but we cannot afford to make things worse in a partisan exercise."

Reacting to President Obama's speech, Josten told Politico magazine, "I don't think we heard anything from the president that sets Congress back on track to accomplish real health care reform that lowers costs and increases access. The American people have soundly rejected the proposals authored in the House and Senate Help Committee and are demanding that Congress stop, revaluate, and start over with a solution that targets the problems in our health care system."

The Chamber believes that the nation's health care system can be reformed with a simple three-pronged approach. 

1. Rein in spiraling health care costs by improving pooling mechanisms so that more businesses can share risk and administrative expenses and bargain with providers for the best prices; providing consumers with meaningful health care provider comparisons on quality measures and prices; and reforming the medical liability system to reduce the cost of unnecessary and defensive medicine, among other measures.
2. Revamp the health insurance system to eliminate the use of pre-existing conditions, guarantee issue of coverage, and ensure fairness in premium costs.
3. Create a national, streamlined marketplace through a connector or exchange that makes shopping for health insurance simple.
    

A copy of the letter is available here.