NFIB

CONTACT: John Kabateck or Michael Shaw, 916-448-9904
or Tony Malandra, 415-664-9685

Nearly 7 in 10 oppose mandatory requirements on individuals

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- None of the health-care proposals currently circulating in the state Capitol include two ideas the people at the center of the crisis say they want, according to a poll of state small-business owners released today.

Small business is at the heart of the 44 million Americans that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates are without health care. Nearly 63 percent of all uninsured workers are either self-employed or working in private sector firms with fewer than 100 employees (98 percent of all U.S. businesses), according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that while 99 percent of large corporations provided health care to their workers, less than half of small businesses could afford to do so. Those that can pay also pay 18 percent more in health-insurance premiums than the largest firms do -- for the same benefits -- according to a Commonwealth Fund-supported study.

NFIB, America's leading small-business advocacy organization, annually polls its members on state and federal issues. Responses become the official lobbying positions of NFIB in Congress and in all 50 state capitals. This year's five-question NFIB/California Member Ballot drew more than 1,300 responses.

• When asked if California should allow health insurers to sell policies with fewer mandates to small businesses, 69 percent said 'Yes,' 17 percent said 'No,' and the remainder were undecided.
• When asked if individuals should be allowed to deduct their share of health-insurance premiums from their personal income tax, more than 90 percent supported the idea with the remainder either opposed to it or undecided.
• More than 68 percent of small-business owners are in opposition to requiring every Californian to purchase and maintain health insurance. Only 21 percent favor the idea, and 11 percent were undecided.
• An almost equal amount of survey respondents, 70 percent, oppose the state creating a pool to provide subsidized health-care coverage for uninsured individuals. Twenty percent support the idea; 10 percent were undecided.
• Less certain was response to the query on whether or not the state should require health insurers to issue policies regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. A little more than half, 54 percent, said, 'Yes,' 32 percent said 'No,' and 14 percent were undecided.

"This survey underscores -- yet again -- what small-business owners having been saying across the nation for the past two decades," said John Kabateck, executive director for NFIB/California. "They desperately want to provide health care for their employees, and in many cases, for themselves too, but have governmental barriers put in front of them that make it impossible. Responses to the first two questions point the way out. And although the biggest cure to this crisis must come from Congress, the state of California should do its part to alleviate some of the pain by allowing its citizens to deduct their health-insurance premiums from their taxes, and -- equally important -- stop larding up basic health-insurance plans with more and more legal requirements that only drive the costs of premiums up and out of reach of small-business owners."