NFIB Member Cliff Wixon warns against bill that would increase health care costs for small business owners and Arizona taxpayers, highlights NFIB survey
GLENDALE (March 24, 2023) – “Businesses of all sizes face the increasing cost of health care every year as they review the health benefits they offer to their employees. A new survey from NFIB found that a whopping 94% of local job creators ‘find it challenging to some degree for their business to manage the cost of offering employer-sponsored health insurance,’ with almost half of small employers reportedly taking a lower profit or suffering a loss to pay for insurance premium increases in the past five years,” NFIB member and small business owner Cliff Wixson wrote in an op-ed for the Arizona Capitol Times. “Bills like HB2290 are part of the reason health care costs continue to increase — more mandates on an already heavily regulated industry will result in increased costs to consumers.”
CLICK HERE to view the NFIB survey’s findings. CLICK HERE to read the full op-ed. Excerpts are below:
HB2290 will increase health care costs
Cliff Wixson
Arizona Capitol Times
March 23, 2023
Arizona’s job creators look warily at policy proposals that will increase health care costs. […] Employer-provided insurance delivers widespread access to health care for workers across all industries, business sizes, and their families. […]
The question was posed recently on these pages why businesses large and small would oppose HB2290. The answer is simple: HB2290 will increase the cost of health care and add significant costs to Arizona taxpayers. […]
Businesses of all sizes face the increasing cost of health care every year as they review the health benefits they offer to their employees. A new survey from NFIB found that a whopping 94% of local job creators “find it challenging to some degree for their business to manage the cost of offering employer-sponsored health insurance,” with almost half of small employers reportedly taking a lower profit or suffering a loss to pay for insurance premium increases in the past five years.
Bills like HB2290 are part of the reason health care costs continue to increase — more mandates on an already heavily regulated industry will result in increased costs to consumers. […]
HB2290 is a classic example of a solution in search of a problem. […] Instead, HB2290 proposes that we make Arizona’s system for addressing claims disputes more expensive for businesses and taxpayers and more complicated for everyone by inserting lawyers into medical decision-making. We urge lawmakers to reject this proposal.
Cliff Wixson is the owner and CEO of Cliffco LLC.
