WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a report outlining ways health-insurance reform will lower health care costs for small businesses.
The report, “Lower Premiums, Stronger Businesses: How Health Insurance Reform Will Bring Down Costs for Small Businesses,” is available at HealthReform.gov.
“Small businesses drive our economy and create jobs, but they are struggling as health care costs continue to rise,” Sebelius said. “The high cost of care is making it difficult or impossible for these businesses to offer care or grow their business. Health insurance reform will bring costs down and give small businesses the relief they need.”
The report notes:
* Small businesses are disproportionately burdened by the financial strains caused by rising health-care costs. On average, small businesses pay up to 18 percent more than large firms for the same health-insurance policy. This difference is due in part to high broker fees and health-plan administrative costs that are three times those in the large group market.
* In a recent national survey, nearly three-quarters of small businesses that did not offer benefits cited high premiums as the reason.
* Nearly half of workers covered by a small-business employer have insurance that limits the total amount the plan will pay for medical care and nearly one in ten small business workers have a health plan that does not offer prescription drug coverage.
* Workers in small firms are more likely to shoulder burdensome out-of-pocket health-care costs. Thirty-six percent spent more than 10 percent of their household income on out-of-pocket medical expenses in 2007, compared with 27 percent of workers in larger firms.
