04/ 02/ 2007
NFIB members participate in roundtables with President Bush about health-insurance costs, attend State of the Union
When you hear that NFIB has a seat at the table in Washington, D.C., you can take it literally.
Thomas Johnson, who immigrated from Ghana in 1993 and founded Thomas A. Johnson Furniture Company Inc., in Lynchburg, Va., was the lone small-business representative at a White House discussion about health care with President George Bush. Johnson was joined by NFIB President and CEO Todd Stottlemyer, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt and CEOs from seven leading health-insurance companies, such as Aetna, Cigna Corp., and Wellpoint Inc.
If Johnson or his employees need medical care, he pays for it out of his own pocket. While he would like to provide full health benefits to his employees, the high costs are prohibitive, and Johnson and his eight employees are forced to go without insurance.
"I work in a trade industry where there is great competition for highly skilled workers," Johnson says. "I take a long time training my employees, and I want them to continue to work with me as my company grows, so I am constantly working to provide benefits and opportunities to them.
"I plan to hire two more workers. It's a tough environment as an owner of a growing small business--we want to continue to be competitive, but we could use more affordable health-care benefit options."
Johnson wasn't the only NFIB member recently in D.C. Dan Jones, employee of NFIB member Joe Balsarotti, usually watches the State of the Union speech from the comfort of his couch. This year, he watched from the comfort of the first lady's viewing box at the U.S. Capitol as a guest of first lady Laura Bush. Jones was joined in D.C. by Balsarotti, who also attended State of the Union activities.
Two days after the State of the Union, Jones and NFIB member Jim Henderson, president of Dynamic Sales Inc. in St. Louis, joined President Bush for a roundtable discussion on health-care initiatives.
Henderson has struggled to continue to provide health insurance to his employees at an affordable cost. He's committed to providing health insurance as a benefit for his employees, but he constantly deals with rising premiums and fewer options in the small-group marketplace.
"We like to take care of our employees; they're like family, and we want to treat them that way," said Henderson, who has been a member of NFIB for 37 years. "It's frustrating to be a small-business owner in this environment. We want to offer the best benefits and opportunities so we can continue to attract the most talented workers. But the playing field needs to be leveled for small businesses in order for us to continue to be the leaders we are in this economy."
Health-care costs are the No. 1 issue facing small-business owners, and NFIB continues to press Congress to address the critical problems--affordability and availability of coverage for the working uninsured. Many small firms cannot afford to provide health insurance due to lack of options and ever-increasing premiums. A number of options to provide affordable alternatives for both employers and their employees, such as tax incentives and pooling, are being discussed in D.C. and are significant first steps to addressing the dire health-care situation. It will take both sides of the aisle to broker an agreement and find common ground. NFIB and members like Johnson and Henderson are stepping up to fight for the best solutions for small business.
