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Health Business Services
Introduction
All the country, Small businesses are struggl as the cost of health care continues to skyrocket, All humans who build and run the millions of small companies around this country have seen insurance costs consume a greater share of their payroll, High costs are making it impossible for many small businesses to provide insurance to their employies, Helping the Bottom Line: Health Reform and Small Business, provides important information on how the high cost of health care burdens small businesses, weakens our economy and leaves millions of Americans without the affordable health care they need and deserve.
Small Businesses Struggle to Provide Health Coverage
A Large Fraction of Uninsured Workers are in Small Businesses: Nearly one-third of the uninsured – 10 million people – are employees of firms with less than 100 workers.1
Workers Not Offered Coverage Are At Great Risk- Half of workers in small firms that do not offer health benefits are uninsured. About a third of such workers in firms with fewer than 40 employees obtain insurance through a spouse.
The Burden of Rising Health Care Costs
Cost is the Barrier- The driving force behind the erosion of health coverage among small businesses is cost. In one national survey, nearly three-quarters of small businesses that did not offer benefits cited high premiums as the reason.One reason small businesses feel this pinch is that they pay more on average for administrative services such as marketing, enrollment, and premium collection.
Disrupts and Diminishes Coverage: In the past two years, more than half of small businesses that offered coverage reported switching to plans with higher out-of-pocket costs in response to rising premiums. Another third switched to a plan that covered fewer services, and 12% dropped coverage entirely.7
Drain on Payroll: Among small businesses that offer coverage, 50% report spending more than 20% of their payroll on health care costs.
Limits Business Growth: Forty percent of small businesses said that health costs have had a negative impact on other parts of their business {for example, contributing to high employee turnover or preventing business growth}.