Saturday, June 13, 2009
Healthcare Costs are Choking Small Businesses
It's a sobering reality. Healthcare costs are soaring and it's choking some small businesses. We don't need CNN to know that. In many companies, healthcare costs are rising between 10-20 percent each year! Can you believe those types of numbers! If the average small business covers say 30% of healthcare costs for employees, then that's a significant amount of increase every year.
Here's an interesting snippet from a recent CNN article: "Of the 46 million Americans living without health care, an outsized majority -- about 60 percent -- work for small businesses, according to the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute." Let's hope that healthcare reform plans will help these small businesses. Image source: CNN
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My husband and I spent more than 20 years having no health insurance -- between the 2 of us we worked 3 jobs and not one of them offered insurance; and when it comes down to a choice between having a roof over your head or insurance which one would you pick?
ReplyDeleteThree years ago my husband became so sick that he had to get medical attention, thankfully we live in a city that has a VA Hospital so we went there. He was diagnosed with diabetes (that had been untreated for 10 years) and chronic kidney failure and congestive heart failure. He is 58 years old and is 100% disabled and receiving VA and Social Security benefits; sadly, what we now live on is double what we made when we were working 3 jobs. Because he is 100% disabled I am eligible for CHAMPVA benefits; I can't tell you how strange it was to go to a doctor for the first time in years just to have a physical!
I understand how difficult it is for small businesses to offer insurance for their employees, but I believe it is basically impossible for far too many people in this country to afford health insurance on their own -- the time has come for all of us (that includes Republican congressmen and senators, as well as hospitals, and existing health insurance companies)to do our part to give all citizens of this nation the opportunity to have insurance without making a choice between having a roof over their heads or health insurance.
I run 2 manufacturing businesses. Not big, and not small, with offices in US, Mexico and China. I do not provide health insurance in the US. I have no problems in China or Mexico. It is just too expensive here in the US. It will definitely break us. We will lose our business to direct exporters/importers based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes get medical checkups in Hong Kong. Got my dental done in Malaysia during one of my trips there. I feel bad for my employees, but there is no choice here.
I really don't understand why the AMA and the Republicans don't see it. Why are they so blind?
I know why insurance companies fight it. For the preservation of their profits, executive bonuses.
By the way, I am yet to hear a Medicare recipient complain. I also haven't met a doctor where they have not been paid by medicare for their billing. I was told as long as they follow the Medicare schedule properly, they get paid better than from private insurance companies.
So, why are the Republicans so blind to this?