Friday, October 19, 2007

A Dwindling Health Provider

Employee benefits is a major provider of health insurance in the United States. Increases in health insurance costs are hitting businesses hard. The increase in costs are making health benefits increasing unaffordable for employers. With an increase in cost, surveys show that the percent of businesses that offer health insurance to their workers has dramatically decreased in the past five years (click here for more details). Small businesses are found to be the main source accountable for the decline of health benefits. The inability to offer employees health benefits makes it hard for businesses to draw in and keep employees. In these cases it could mean that a business owner is forced to decide between providing health insurance or hiring another worker. For small businesses not offering health care benefits is a dangerous situation to be in. Without the aid of health benefits the jobs offered by the business are less appealing and it is harder for the employer to keep employees for a long period of time. When a business loses a worker they are losing time and money that went into training and hiring that individual worker as the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations explains. The story of one small business in Montana, that has decided to go on without offering health insurance to employees, gives testimony to the bind that high health insurance prices can leave small business owners in. In some forms of universal health care the price of providing health care for employers is decreased to an affordable rate. By decreasing the cost to employers of providing health insurance the government is able to require that companies provide their employees with health care. With more companies providing health insurance to their workers the health coverage of American citizens will greatly increase.

2 comments:

HealthyGirl said...

This is Kristy posting on Amanda's account. I personally understand where this is coming from, my father is a small business owner so I have witnessed this issue. Not being a big business it is relatively impossible to issue health insurance to all of your workers without losing profit or money yourself. It is too expensive to issue health insurance to your staff and give them a remotely reasonable salary. Small business owners have to make a decision whether to sacrifice some profit and worker's wages for covering their health insurance. This decision can be crucial to the business because you dont want to go into debt or lose workers to a bigger business who is able to provide their workers with these benefits. The health care issue is making it harder for American citizens to have a successful business and to maintain workers.

HealthyGirl said...

Right, this is another reason that the push for a universal health care system is increasing. More and more citizens are beginning to realize that the increased money currently spent on health insurance is causing the economy to suffer on private, corporate, and government levels.