Health Care Reform and Small Business

Raise your hand if you have health insurance. Raise your other hand if your employer provides part of it. 

If your hands are still at your sides you are a member of some 45 million Americans without health insurance. Of those without insurance, an estimated 63 percent are either self-employed or work for a small business, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

If your hands are still in the air you are probably one of 177 million people who have employer-provided insurance.  However, as President Obama said, “all it takes is one stroke of bad luck – an accident or an illness, a divorce, a lost job – to become one of the nearly 46 million uninsured.”

It’s not all about budgeting. An estimated 17-plus million uninsured are making more than $75,000 a year, and are part of the fastest growing segment of the uninsured population.

In this issue we look at the health in the workplace. Many say the theory behind the healthcare reform is a move to national health care, which we wouldn’t be pioneering. England is trying to get out from under theirs.  Canada has states getting out from under theirs. Meanwhile Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Australia are thrilled with their health care systems comparable to the level of care in the U.S. at half the cost.

Will the health care reform bill help or hurt small businesses? Some say it will help. Others say not. Some say we need a national health care system. Some say we don’t need another inefficient government-run program.

Time will tell. In the meantime, stay tight with your insurance provider and eat at least one apple a day.