10September 2009
The National Federation Of Independent Business owners points to several reasons why Health Care Reform will hurt small business owners. They point out that any plan that forces small business owners to provide health insurance will cost jobs and prevent businesses to grow and prosper.
Large businesses can get lower premiums do the the economies of scale. Small businesses will not be able to survive with any kind of government mandate, including the so called public option.
It’s not that small business owners don’t want some sort of health care reform, but the current proposals do more to hurt business rather than help them. Business owners have complained since 1986 about the rising cost of health insurance and want something done.
* Small business owners provide health insurance for 68 million employees each year.
* Since 1999 health insurance premiums have risen 113%.
* Between 2000 and 2005, the cost of health insurance compared to payroll increased 43.5%.
When you realize that small business owners produce approximately two thirds of new jobs annually, you have to wonder why proposals that would hurt the small business owner are on the table. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot.
The NFIB has three priorities, address cost, choice and competition. They have given several proposals to congress, but they seem to fall on deaf ears at this point. Let’s hope that whatever the final plan looks like that it doesn’t hurt small business owners the way current proposals surely will.