Help small businesses with public insurance plans

JODY Hall spends nearly as much on health insurance for her employees as she does on rent for the three locations of her business, Cupcake Royale.

Every year, she faces steep rate hikes from her insurance company. The latest? A whopping 40 percent.

A member of the Washington Small Business for Secure Health Care Coalition, Jody recently joined small-business owners from across America at a round-table discussion with Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform.

Like many small-business owners, Jody believes it is important her employees have health-insurance coverage. But faced with skyrocketing costs from private insurers, small businesses are often forced to decrease the quality of coverage or shift costs to their staffs.

Small businesses are significant and essential — but not many can afford to provide health care for their employees. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 96 percent of the nation's employers are small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

Small businesses need health-care reform so we can do our part for economic recovery, like creating good jobs with benefits. The current "go-it-alone" approach to health care is not working and is an unfair burden for Main Street businesses.

There is a solution. President Obama has proposed providing the choice of a public health-insurance plan as an alternative to the high prices and limited options from private insurers. A public health-insurance plan would be managed by the federal government and pay private health-care providers to provide health care to patients.

It would give small businesses tangible choices, real leverage and healthier workers.

A public plan can drive down costs by strengthening small-business bargaining power, spreading risk and using resources for health-care expenses, not CEO salaries, advertising and lobbying. Additionally, having a counterbalance to private insurers would foster a climate of transparency and accountability, which is sorely missing.

The choice of a public plan is not about ideology, but common sense. A recent study by the Common Wealth Fund shows that health reform with a public health-insurance option would yield $3 trillion in savings in our nation's health-care system from 2010-2020. That includes saving employers more than $230 billion. The public-plan option is projected to lower premiums for small businesses by 20-30 percent.

Having a public plan as a guaranteed backup will also give entrepreneurs peace of mind that they can start a business without being punished with the loss of coverage.

Small-business owners aren't looking for handouts. We are willing to pay our fair share, but we can't go it alone at the mercy of powerful private insurers.

How can we let Congress know that we need better health-care choices? On Saturday, May 30, join the "Health Care for All in 2009" march and rally in Seattle. The march has been endorsed by more than 125 organizations and is part of a national call to action supporting President Obama in winning health-care reform this year.

At the recent White House small-business roundtable, Larry Summers, the head of President Obama's National Economic Council, said:

"There's never been a big business that didn't start as a small business. If you look at where the job growth comes from, it's small business. If you look at where people get their start, it's small business. In a real sense, you are the backbone of the nation's economy. And the system we've had hasn't worked well for you and the people who work with you."

Congress should help small businesses like Jody's do the work of economic recovery by enacting health-care reform in 2009 with the choice of a public health-insurance plan.