Small Businesses Need Health Care Reform: October 28, 2009

Without change, health insurance premiums for Wisconsin's small businesses will continue to skyrocket.  In 2008, Wisconsin’s small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs spent $3.1 billion in healthcare premiums. That number will rise to $7.2 billion by 2018 without relief from comprehensive reform. The rising cost of health insurance for Wisconsin’s small businesses hampers their ability to compete and to retain employees.

• Wisconsin had 112,776 small employers in 2006, representing 96% of the state’s employers.   But, due to cost, only 41% of small businesses offered any type of health insurance as a benefit.
• 340,015 self-employed entrepreneurs make up 12% of Wisconsin’s employment. These entrepreneurs and the state’s small business employees together make up 45% of the workforce.
• Small businesses created all of Wisconsin's net new jobs from 2004 to 2005.

* WITHOUT health reform, small businesses will pay nearly $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years in health care costs for their workers.

* WITHOUT reform, 178,000 small business jobs will be lost in 2018 as a result of rising health care costs.

* WITHOUT reform, $834 billion in small business wages will be lost due to high health care costs over the next 10 years

* WITHOUT reform, over the next 10 years, small businesses will lose $52.1 billion in profits to high health care costs.

Wisconsin's small businesses need health care reform that works for them and includes the following:

• A well-designed health insurance exchange that creates a marketplace that is fair, efficient and predictable, relieving small business owners from the time-consuming task of shopping for health insurance in today’s chaotic conditions.
• Ensures that thousands of Wisconsin citizens with histories of health problems would get coverage they’ve been denied.
• Provides tax credits and individual subsidies, included in the proposals now before Congress, to help businesses afford coverage for their employees.
• Includes numerous provisions to eliminate inefficiency and waste in the health care system, creating savings for the businesses and families paying premiums.