Small Business Owners Are Desperate for Health Care Relief

nat rosasco • November 7, 2019

By Anne Zimmerman

Woman reviews papers, calculating expenses at a table with laptop, man holding a mug in the background.

This post originally appeared on Inside Sources.

I’ve heard a lot about the problems with our health care system during the Democratic primaries. And rightfully so. It’s alarming that after 10 years of increasing coverage, the rate of uninsured Americans rose by 2 million in 2018. What I have not heard a lot about, however, is the plight of small businesses struggling with ever-increasing health care costs.

I would think someone running for president would be interested to learn, as a recent poll by Public Private Strategies shows, that small business owners are so desperate for relief on health care costs that they will embrace policy ideas from across the political spectrum without regard to ideology.

Perhaps it’s not news that health insurance is an expensive benefit for small business owners to provide. But it is noteworthy when small business owners — the people who employ half the private sector — say the cost of health care is still their No. 1 problem.