Glendale Small Business Owner: Lawmakers Should Reject HB 2290

March 24, 2023

NFIB Member Cliff Wixon warns against bill that would increase health care costs for small business owners and Arizona taxpayers, highlights NFIB survey

Glendale Small Business Owner: Lawmakers Should Reject HB 2290

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.

Topics:

Healthcare

Insurance

State:

Arizona

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