Joan Majer is an agent for a small real estate company, and like millions of Americans working for small firms, she doesn't get health insurance from her employer. She pays for it herself.
But with a number of health problems not covered under her plan, she says her monthly medical costs eat up nearly half her income: $230 for insurance, $250 for antibiotics and another $100 for painkillers.
Some lawmakers think the solution is to form what they call "Association health plans (search)" — programs that serve groups of small businesses that otherwise wouldn't be able to cover their employees as well.
But state insurance commissioners say these health plans are risky business, because of rampant opportunities for fraud. Other critics fear companies would give their best deals only to those firms with the healthiest employees.
Lawmakers on both sides agree that changes need to be made — they just don't agree on the methods used to make health care affordable to people like Majer.
Click in the video box above for a report by FOX News' Jeff Goldblatt.
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