Health Care Update with John Arensmeyer

posted by David Wolf on Mar 2, 2010 | Comments (0) | Permalink | Trackback URL

Here are my show notes form this interview segment:

• Millions of small business owners have been notified of double-digit, and in some cases even triple-digit, increases to their healthcare premiums recently. It’s becoming more and more difficult for the nation’s 28 million small business owners to afford health insurance.
  Where do we go from here?

• More than 60% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees no longer offer insurance, and 28% of the 22 million self-employed Americans can’t afford insurance at all. According to a survey by Hewitt Associates, 19% of employers are planning to stop offering health benefits in the next two to five years. They simply can’t afford it.
  So, they stop offering the benefits-what choice do they have?

• Last month’s election in Massachusetts doesn’t change the fact that healthcare is an enormous problem for small business owners, and they are still desperate for reform. An economic study we commissioned shows that without reform, small businesses will pay $2.4 trillion in healthcare costs over the next decade, and lose $834 billion in wages over that period due to those costs.

• As premiums get higher and higher, more and more small businesses will be priced out of insurance. Amid all the talk about what small business owners can and can’t afford in regard to reform, what they truly cannot bear is a continuation of the status quo.

• Small businesses are looking to Congress to pass legislation this year, so they can keep their doors open.
  What is the Small Business Majority doing right now about this legislation, and how can our listeners help out or learn more about what they can do in their own business?

FILED IN: Finance, News & Events, The Business of Health