The Growing Problem of Small Business Health Insurance
As the number of people without health insurance continues to rise, government on both the state and federal level have begun to look at one of the largest contributing factors to the growing problem of small business health insurance: small business owners and their employees who can’t afford coverage.
Currently, there are about 47 million uninsured people in the U.S., almost 20 million are employed by small businesses or are self employed — this number is increasing by an average of more than 500,000 a year since 2000.
It is estimated that since 2000, insurance premiums have almost doubled. In an effort to help ease this burden, state authorities are taking a variety of different approaches. Arizona, for one, is extending tax credits to small business employers that provide medical coverage for their employees.
Others states like Montana and New Mexico are exploring insurance purchasing pools that let small businesses group together so that they can have the same purchasing strength and discounts of larger businesses.
Rising Health Care Costs = Higher Premium
The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, estimates that smaller companies pay 18 percent more (for the same insurance) than big companies. This makes the cost of insurance a much larger burden for a smaller business.
After the owner of a florist shop in Culpeper, Virginia turned 60, the premiums he paid for his three employees he covered raised by more than 50 percent last year. Because he pays the full premium for these employees, he now pays almost $1,800 a month, as apposed to the $1,100 he once paid.
Small Business = Limited Capital
Many small businesses don’t have the moneys available to keep up with health insurance premiums.
“As a state, we need to do whatever we can to make small business more successful since they are the engine that drives our state’s economy and they employ a great percentage of our citizens. To that end, affordable health insurance has been a concern of small business for many years,” said Sen. Glenn McConnell, a small-business owner. “Health-group cooperatives are another tool to help small business help themselves and help their employees by being able to purchase health insurance by increasing their bargaining power in the marketplace.”
Lack of Benefits = Less Quality Employee Choices
In March of 2007, legislative leaders and small-business owners from across South Carolina calling for passage of a bipartisan bill that would establish health-group cooperatives in South Carolina.
“In the competition for workforce and intellectual capital, being able to provide health insurance for employees is increasingly key to businesses’ ability to compete,” Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina said. “Unfortunately, current laws put affordable health insurance for employees out of reach for far too many small businesses – and we believe this legislation would be an important step toward addressing that.”
One thing you can do right now is to begin shopping for more competitive health coverage.
Click this link: FREE Online Quote. Then run quotes for both long term and short term coverage so that you can compare the premiums. There is also a link for a group plan for all of your employees.
The growing problem of small business health insurance has finally become a prominent concern for our state and national leaders. Let’s see what becomes of the issue as we get closer to major elections.
