A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services outlines the ways health insurance reform can lower healthcare costs for small businesses. Among the findings presented in Lower Premiums, Stronger Businesses: How Health Insurance Reform Will Bring Down Costs for Small Businesses are the following:
- On average, small businesses pay up to 18 percent more than large firms for the same health insurance policy.
- In a recent national survey, nearly three-quarters of small businesses that did not offer benefits cited high premiums as the reason.
- Thirty-six percent of workers in small firms 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.
According to the report, health insurance reform will bring down costs for small businesses by creating a health insurance exchange, providing a small business tax credit, ending the “hidden tax” on small businesses that provide health insurance, and preventing arbitrary premium hikes.
