Survey: Small businesses favor partnership for health insurance

By Eric Reinhardt, Journal Staff

Eight of 10 New York small businesses that were surveyed believe a public-private partnership is the best way to provide health insurance for their employees.

That’s according to a report from the Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY), the American Cancer Society, AARP, and Sausalito, Calif.–based Small Business Majority.

The survey report, called “The Health Care Pulse of New York Small Business,” indicates about 80 percent of respondents favor a system jointly financed by business, employees, and government.

“We think it’s very encouraging because the trends, right now, are that people were concerned that businesses did not want to participate in paying for health care for their employees,” says Louis Gordon, coordinator of BALCONY, a New York City–based advocacy organization representing more than 1,000 businesses, trade associations, labor unions, and nonprofit organizations on various public issues affecting the state.

Gordon also does consulting work, representing Jericho, N.Y.–based Top Dot Mortgage and Philadelphia, Pa.–based USI Affinity, a provider of insurance, financial, and risk management services, to individuals and unions. He notes that his position at BALCONY takes up 80 percent of his time.

Gordon believes state lawmakers will eventually get behind such a program, but he doesn’t think it will happen this year. “Probably the governor, health department, and insurance department are going to come forward with their plans in the next couple months,” says Gordon.

But at the same time, fully half of New York small businesses do not provide health insurance, and of those that do, a large number are cutting benefits or raising costs to employees to maintain some coverage.

Businesses want to be part of the solution and don’t want to feel like they’re shouldering the entire burden, says John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority (SBM), a national nonprofit organization of business entrepreneurs whose primary focus is comprehensive health-care reform.

The organization currently has about 2,000 members and is building active chapters and affiliates in 10 states, including New York.

“They want to know that everyone’s pitching in and everyone’s trying to solve the problem and that the ultimate result is going to be affordable care for them and for their employees,” says Arensmeyer.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents favored giving business the option of paying into a statewide pool for employee insurance.

The BALCONY survey also shows 9 of 10 small-business owners believe the cost of pharmaceuticals was a major factor affecting the cost of providing health care for employees.

In addition, the survey also indicates businesses believe they have a societal obligation to offer health insurance, but they don’t believe a free-market approach is the sole answer.

Gordon believes businesses are seeing the premiums from various providers and may be thinking that government-supported programs, like the way it’s done in Canada and Great Britain, may be a solution.

“They see the participation of government as a positive force,” says Gordon.

Arensmeyer thinks it’s particularly noteworthy that small businesses are embracing the idea of change to help resolve the health-care crisis.

In 2006, SBM conducted a national scientific poll of small businesses, and a more extensive scientific poll of health-care concerns of small businesses in California in 2007. Arensmeyer says those surveys also indicated health care is a primary concern.

He says the one in California was as detailed as the survey conducted in New York, adding that many of the questions were the same or similar. Arensmeyer also notes the responses were similar but says the ones regarding the desire for comprehensive reform proposals “were more extreme in New York than in California,” meaning there was a higher percentage of respondents indicating they wanted health-care reform pursued.

“So as time goes by, frustration in the business community about health care and support for comprehensive reforms only grows,” says Arensmeyer.

Melbourne, Fla.–based Global Market Research Strategies conducted the telephone survey of 409 New York businesses from April 21 through May 12, 2008, and focused on businesses with fewer than 500 employees. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

Read the Survey Report by clicking here: Survey Report