FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    

ALBANY (May 12, 2022) – National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) member Chuck Handley is the president of Burke’s Home Center in Oswego and Fulton, the two locations of a family business started by his great-grandfather in 1926. His retail home stores employ 25 New Yorkers, and he provides them health insurance coverage for which he pays 50 percent of the premiums. His story is featured in NFIB’s latest In Their Own Words (ITOW) series video, and he discussed his fears about escalating efforts in Albany to take over individual healthcare with a single-payer, government-run program.

Watch the new NFIB ITOW video featuring Chuck Handley here: https://vimeo.com/705773982/62859c1d0b

The response from members and small business owners speaking out against the disastrous proposal in Albany is resounding. Last month, NFIB, the state and nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, launched a statewide radio and online ad campaign to educate and activate small business owners and job creators just as the state legislature has begun advancing the New York Health Act, a government takeover of New York’s healthcare system that will require hundreds of billions of new taxes. The campaign also includes a website, NFIB.com/stopsinglepayer, with information about the legislation and links to local legislators. 

Yesterday, on a party-line vote, the Assembly Codes Committee passed “the New York Health Act,” A.6058/S.5474, which would eliminate private health insurance coverage and establish a government-run, single-payer healthcare system in New York. The legislation is estimated to cost close to $250 billion in taxes to be funded, in large part, through a payroll tax on employers and employees.

Employers, including small businesses, would be responsible for 80 percent of the payroll tax. Implementing a government-run, single-payer healthcare system will add substantial new costs to every small business operating in New York, jeopardize tens of thousands of jobs, and further erode the Empire State’s economic competitiveness.  

“Albany-run, single-payer healthcare is a catastrophe-in-waiting for NFIB members and small businesses across the state,” said NFIB’s NY State Director Ashley Ranslow. “Access to quality, affordable healthcare has been a top priority of NFIB members like Chuck Handley for decades. Small business owners work hard to provide healthcare options that make sense for their business and their employees. Replacing the state’s entire private health insurance market with a system designed and administered by Albany’s famously inefficient and expensive bureaucracy would be a disaster for thousands of small businesses and the local economies they sustain.”

“Lawmakers need to understand that New York’s job creators cannot afford to foot the bill for a state-run healthcare system and the $250 billion tax increase required to fund it,” Ranslow said. “Main Street businesses have suffered through the pandemic, state-imposed shutdowns and restrictions, and New York’s nation-leading tax burden. Now, small business owners face devastating UI tax bills, record-high inflation, supply chain disruptions, increased labor costs, and the proposition of lawmakers approving the single largest state tax increase in generations. Before legislators advance this terrible bill, they should watch Chuck Handley’s video testimony and listen to small business owners in their districts. Albany-run healthcare is bad policy coming at an even worse time. As 2022’s legislative session winds down, NFIB and small business owners across New York urge members of the state Assembly and Senate to reject a state government healthcare takeover and its $250 billion tax hike.”

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For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.