03/30/2006
When Educated on SBHPs, Voters Favor the Approach
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, small-business owners and groups fighting for affordable health care welcomed the results of a national survey, which found that, when educated on the topic, voters are overwhelmingly in favor of Small-Business Health Plans. The survey, released by the National Association of Realtors, found that when voters read a neutral description of SBHPs, 89 percent said they favor the approach and just 6 percent said they oppose it.
The survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Lake Research Partners to examine public support for SBHPs and S. 1955, legislation to enact such health plans, which is awaiting consideration by the full U.S. Senate. At a press conference today, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee; Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), and Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) praised the study’s findings and called for prompt Senate action on their bill, which passed the HELP Committee earlier this month.
“This survey proves that Small-Business Health Plans make sense to Americans. The creation of SBHPs will bring much needed relief to small-business owners struggling with high costs and limited access to health insurance,” said Dan Danner, executive vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, speaking on behalf of the SBHP Coalition and NFIB, the nation’s largest small-business group.
Importantly, the survey shows that groups across the political spectrum support small-business health purchasing plans—from small-business owners (93 percent in favor) to large-company employees (84 percent), Democrats (82 percent) to Republicans (92 percent), and union members (88 percent) to non-union workers (85 percent), support for this fair, common-sense health-purchasing model is strong.
The survey also reports that when voters read equally balanced arguments on both sides of this issue, they find arguments in support of small-business health purchasing plans much more compelling. Eighty-eight percent of voters found the argument for SBHPs “very convincing,” while only 45 percent of the voters found the argument against SBHPs “very convincing.”
SBHPs will level the health-insurance playing field and give participating small businesses the same buying power as Fortune 500 companies and unions by allowing them to band together through trade and professional associations to purchase affordable health benefits. The positive vote in the HELP Committee, the first vote in the Senate on the issue, sets the stage for a planned May floor vote. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed similar legislation eight times over the past decade, most recently last July.
“Small-business owners, employees or dependents of small businesses with less than 100 employees account for the largest segment of the uninsured population. SBHPs will provide much-needed competition for the small-group market and bring more choices for owners facing double-digit rate increases and struggling to afford health insurance for their employees,” said Danner. “The SBHP Coalition urges the full Senate to pass SBHPs, a fair, common-sense and badly needed solution, into law.”
For a copy of the survey or to speak with one of our health-care experts about SBHPs, please contact Mike Donohue at (202) 314-2044 or michael.donohue@nfib.org.
