Small Business Fights for the Same Right to Health Care as Unions and Big Business
It's time to address the issue of affordable and accessible health insurance for small businesses. Seventy-four percent of NFIB members agree that reducing the cost of health care is the single most serious issue facing our healthcare system today, and 73 percent of small business owners say that "high premiums" are the No. 1 reason they don't offer healthcare.
For years we've known that a bigger pool of people allows health-insurance companies to spread health risk. Market-based pooling—meaning private health-insurance companies compete for your business—would help small businesses:
- Gain bargaining power
- Lower administrative costs
- Increease coverage options
- Reduce inconsistency in yearly premium increases
A key component to market-based pooling is to allow groups to pool across state lines. By doing so, it increases the size of the pool, which spreads the risk among a larger population and, inevitably, lowers costs.
Market-based pooling structures can work to alleviate and reform the small business medical insurance market. Not only is NFIB leading the fight for this reform, it chairs the leading Coalition for Access and Choice in Small-Business Health Plans, which includes more than 200 members representing 12 million employers and 80 million workers.
Legislative proposals that include market-based pooling:
