|
Volume 12 Number 98 News: Access The rising cost of health care is the top health care concern of the nation's small businesses, but small business owners do not support sweeping health care reforms, according to a survey released May 21 by the National Federation of Independent Business. Nearly three-quarters of NFIB members said rising health care costs is the single most important issue facing the health care system. Expanding coverage ranked a distant third, registering just 9 percent of NFIB members. "Once again small-business owners overwhelmingly voiced the need for Congress to address ever-rising health insurance costs," NFIB Senior Research Fellow William Dennis said in a press release. Differing Priorities "A difference in top priorities appears between Congress and America's small-business owners. One is primarily interested in coverage and the other cost. If lawmakers can help reduce costs, small businesses can help increase coverage in the long-run." NFIB is the leading small business advocacy organization. A typical NFIB member employs five people and has gross sales of about $350,000 a year, according to the group's Web site. Fifty-eight percent of NFIB members offer their workers health care coverage, according to the survey. NFIB members do not favor radical health care reform, but want to see the current framework maintained "with relatively modest reforms thrown in," survey said. NFIB found that 55 percent of its members prefer the current system with some changes, while 22 percent favor a consumer-driven system, and 18 percent seek a government-run system. No Radical Changes "Small business owners do not appear amenable to radical change in the American health-care system," the survey said. "They would like change, but have difficulty visualizing anything radically different from what we have today. This is likely true because they have not yet been persuaded that one of the other two primary alternatives is viable." Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed support a personal mandate requiring health insurance coverage for those financially able to purchase coverage, and a nearly equal percentage think employers' role in providing coverage should remain voluntary. The best way to deal with the lack of health insurance for many Americans is via a tax credit, according to 63 percent of those surveyed. Expanding federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid garnered support from just 9 percent of those surveyed. "Small business owners are suspicious of new and/or expanded initiatives with which they are not familiar or would get government even more deeply involved in health care," the survey said. "Tax credits used to purchase private health insurance is more familiar and trusted." A large majority (74 percent) also opposed eliminating the federal tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance, while 57 percent oppose a plan put forward by President Bush in his fiscal year 2008 budget plan capping the exclusion, according to the survey. The survey is available at NFIB website.
|
