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Executive Summary
When it comes to health care, American small business owners are
getting a raw deal. While the current insurance marketplace offers
some options to larger employers, it too often leaves small business
owners on the outside looking in. They face unpredictable changes in
costs, and far too often they are forced to choose between covering
employees and the very survival of their businesses.
One crucial test of any
health reform proposal is whether it offers a better deal to American
small businesses. But the key Washington lobbies who claim to
represent small businesses have been historically aligned with the
political interests most opposed to reform. To more accurately
reflect the diversity of views of small businesses on health care,
the U.S. Public Interest Research Group has let small business owners
to speak for themselves. Three hundred and forty-three small business
owners and managers across the country made their views heard through
a survey which investigated the impact of health care costs on their
businesses.
Survey Results:
Our efforts revealed that
small businesses who do not currently offer coverage would
overwhelmingly like to, but are stymied by high costs, complications
and red tape. We discovered that those entrepreneurs who do make the
sacrifices necessary to provide health care consider it less a moral
obligation than a smart business strategy to increase employee
productivity and attract and retain talented employees. Finally, we
discovered that only a fraction of small business owners surveyed
believed that their voices were being heard in the current health
care debate.
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78% of small businesses who do not offer coverage would like to do
so.
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80% of those owners
who would like to offer coverage cite cost as a barrier
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17% of those owners
who would like to offer coverage say that they do not offer
coverage because it is too complicated
-
55% of small
businesses offering coverage do so to attract and retain good
employees
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27% of small
businesses offering coverage do so to increase worker productivity
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Only 24% of owners
surveyed felt that their interests were represented in the current
health reform debate.
Benefits of
Health Reform:
Successful reform could
yield serious benefits for small businesses and the country as a
whole. Recent analysis by MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, commissioned
by the Small Business Majority, found that health reform would save
up to 128,000 small business jobs that would otherwise be lost due to
high health care costs. Achieving these benefits will require
ensuring that health reform legislation has a mix of policies that
work for small businesses, including health insurance exchanges,
ending discrimination in issuance, renewal, and pricing of coverage
plans based on health history, small business tax credits, and most
importantly, a comprehensive push to reduce the growth in overall
health care spending.
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