Reform Would Help, Not Harm, Small Business

Small businesses just can't afford health care." That's the message that opponents of reform keep pounding out. Trouble is, they aren't listening to the Small Business Majority and other groups representing America's 27 million small business owners who want to be able to provide quality health care to their employees and themselves.

Just 35 percent of businesses that employ 10 or fewer workers provide any health coverage. Small businesses pay an average of 18 percent more than larger firms for identical health insurance policies, have limited choices of insurers because of a lack of competition, and pay much higher administrative costs than larger firms. 

Health care reform will give small business owners more options and choice among insurers and provide a tax credit to help them pay for it.

A survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that 80 percent of small business owners believe that small businesses should pay something toward the health care of employees.

Real health care reform will help make that happen.

For the average small business currently providing health benefits, real health care reform with an employer mandate "pay or play" component would mean a savings of $3,502 per worker for businesses with 10 or fewer employees and $880 per worker for those with fewer than 100 employees, the Economic Policy Institute found.

The legislation CWA supports includes an "insurance exchange," a kind of marketplace where small businesses can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now.  They can then pick the one that works best for them and employees.

"Lack of health care availability is the biggest impediment to people who are trying to start new businesses," said John Arensmeyer, found and chief executive officer of the Small Business Majority. Without health care reform the small business sector will lose an estimated 178,000 jobs by 2018, an analysis by the Small Business Majority found.