Real People, Real Stories

The U.S Senate is poised to take its first-ever vote on Small-Business Health Plans in a bill, S. 1955, co-sponsored by Sens. Mike Enzi, Ben Nelson and Conrad Burns. The members of the SBHP Coalition support this critically needed piece of legislation, which will lower health insurance premiums by double digits for small employers nationwide and provide coverage for significantly more uninsured people.

We've heard story from after story from our members about why they need this bill. Each day, from now until the vote is taken, we will share a real small-business story, along with a fact about small-business health care.

Make a difference for real people across the country—contact your senators today and urge them to pass S. 1955!

May 4, 2006
"As a small-business owner, I have been forced to make some tough decisions when it comes to health care for my employees. We have always paid 100 percent of our employees’ health-care premiums, and they have had very good coverage. Over the past three years, I have had to make some drastic changes. In order to keep the business open, we have had to cut down on coverage. We have also had to ask our employees to pay some of the costs and we are not able to give them raises to cover these costs. If the costs of health care keep rising, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep my business open, since I'll be losing more money than I am making."

—Greg Hibbard; Hibbard Foundations; Akron, OH.

May 3, 2006
"I am facing a crisis in my efforts to provide health insurance for my workers. My small business with 20 employees has struggled the past 10 years to provide a health-plan benefit for its workers. I have been able to provide medical insurance for my employees only by reducing coverage, raising individual office fees, and asking my employees to cost share in the monthly premiums. Underwriting penalties for a small group policy, rising medical costs and increasing mandates from government are collectively squeezing my small business to the point where meaningful health coverage will soon no longer be affordable."

—Larry Gunnin, Commonwealth Industrial Service, Hopewell, Va.

May 2, 2006
"I am currently providing health care for all my employees and their families. The cost at the present time is over $44,000 per year for five employees, up 28 percent from last year. The premiums have escalated at about that rate for the last several years, and twice I have had to drop to plans with lesser coverage to be able to pay the premiums. When the rate increases were questioned, the company said bluntly that they did not want to insure small groups and that the rates were an attempt to discourage that business. We really need to be able to find some kind of relief or we will have to reduce our benefit level to where the financial burden on my staff could be devastating. In a business as small as mine, health-care costs are my largest expense and there seems to be no end in sight."

—Dennis Akin; Wash Wizard; Hendersonville, Tenn.

May 1, 2006
"Our health insurance has more than tripled in the last five years. We currently employ 13 people and provide their health insurance and they have to pay for their dependents. This year our rates increased by 28 percent and we had to raise our deductible to $8,000 to even be able to offer insurance to our employees. We tried to cover all the costs, but to provide the same coverage we had five years ago would have cost the company $89,000. At a 12 percent profit margin we would have to generate $750,000 in sales just to cover that expense. Thirty percent of our yearly sales profit is dedicated to health insurance. We probably won't be able to offer health insurance next year if we don't get some relief."

—Dan Johnson; Sanders & Johnson; Denver, Colo.

April 28, 2006
"Our February 2006 renewal premium increased by nearly 40 percent; for a group of four insured with no major medical issues to consider and no increases in plan benefits, this was difficult to understand. Our course of action was to look for affordable plans with fewer benefits but that proved to be difficult and the results undesirable. Fortunately, one of our employees decided to waive coverage and join the policy offered by the large corporation that employs her husband. Her premium under our policy would have been $4,740 a year. The price to carry her on her husband's policy is only $700 a year, now that's a disparity! If adequate health coverage is to be provided to employees of small business, it's going to be vital that small businesses be allowed to pool their employees in order to minimize the premiums to which they are now subjected."

—Greg Lusè; National Tax Resource Group; Addison, Texas