01/09/2008
CONTACT: Michelle Bolton, 602-263-7690 or Tony Malandra, 415-664-9685
PHOENIX -- A poll of Arizona small-business owners taken by their biggest representative group and released today showed entrepreneurs holding fast against being legally forced to provide health care for their employees.
When asked by the National Federation of Independent Business/Arizona if the state should require all employers to offer and pay for health insurance for their employees, 93 percent said 'No,' 5 percent said 'Yes,' and 2 percent were undecided.
"Small-business owners have been sounding the drum beat about health care affordability for more than 20 years, but the issue continues to fall on deaf ears," said Michelle Bolton, state director for NFIB/Arizona, which annually polls its members on the issues vital to their businesses' survival. According to Bolton, 93 percent of large employers in Arizona can afford to provide medical coverage for their workers, yet only 39 percent of firms with 50 employees or fewer can do so.
Two other questions on health care found only a 29 percent support for transforming Healthcare Group of Arizona into a high-risk pool for individuals with serious medical conditions, 39 percent opposed the idea and 32 percent were either undecided or did not respond. Asked if Arizona should repeal a law requiring small businesses without health care to be without it for at least six months before being allowed participation in the Healthcare Group of Arizona, 39 percent favored repealing the law; 43 percent voted 'No,' and 18 percent were either undecided or did not respond. In the only non-health-care question of the poll, 88 percent of NFIB-member, small-business owners voted against expanding the state's transaction privilege tax to include personal and business services.
Bolton said the cost and availability of health care has been small business' No. 1 concern every year since 1984. She said small-business owners believe in providing health care, but simply cannot afford to do so. In a 2007 survey conducted by the NFIB Research Foundation, 74 percent of NFIB members identified cost as the biggest problem facing health care today. Expanding coverage ranked third at 9 percent.
"Small businesses and their employees are concerned with cost and maintaining their freedom to choose," said Bolton. "My simple message to Arizona legislators is small business and hard-working Arizonans can't continue to shoulder more mandates and increased costs. One of our top issues for the this session will be to take another swing at the mandate-lite piñata in hopes we can break loose some additional low-cost, health care coverage for thousands of Arizona workers."
