Survey Shows Business Owners Defy Stereotype
MONTANA BUSINESS OWNERS FED UP WITH HEALTH CARE CRISIS
Survey Reveals Overwhelming Support for Public Insurance Option
BOZEMAN, MT.—Businesses for a Healthy Montana today announced the release of "Taking the Pulse of Main Street: Small Businesses, Health Insurance, and Priorities for Reform." The report compiles results from a survey of 1200 business owners nationwide, along with many of their individual stories. Individual breakdowns of results from Montana and nine other states are included.
The nationwide survey on which the report is based shows that small business owners are fed up with being at the mercy of health insurance corporations, strongly support the creation of a quality public insurance alternative, and are willing to contribute to it.
Featuring 1,200 businesses nationwide and 72 in Montana, the report includes surprising results that challenge the conventional wisdom. The business owners were not previously members of the coalition, but contact through door-to-door canvassing. A sampling of the findings:
- By a 2:1 margin in Montana (also 2:1 nationally), small business owners support the creation of a public insurance option to compete with private insurance corporations’ offerings.
- Nearly two-thirds of small business owners in Montana and nationwide are willing to contribute 4-7 percent or more of their payroll costs to ensure employees have quality health insurance.
- By a 3:1 margin in Montana (more than 4:1 nationally), respondents believed that “government should play a strong role in guaranteeing access to quality affordable health care” over the idea that “health care should be left up to the free market.”
Unpredictability and drastic premium hikes were major problems for many business owners surveyed, and stories collected in the report spoke to these factors: “We started with a seemingly decent health plan,” said Matt Hisel of Home Resource, a building supply business in Missoula, “then the insurance company hit us with a 39 percent increase after just one year.”
"I am able to provide insurance to most employees only with help from the state-supported Insure Montana program, which has far more applicants than can enroll," said Billie Shephard, owner of the Pan Handler kitchenware shop in Helena. "I strongly support a publicly-funded solution to our health care crisis."
Small business owners also echoed the importance of enacting real health care reform when addressing the state’s economic woes. “To hasten economic recovery, we should allow entrepreneurs to focus on operating their business and sustaining jobs, rather than draining their time and energy dealing with insurance companies,” said Jennifer Rockne, director of the Montana-based American Independent Business Alliance.
These findings counter many of the myths surrounding small business owners and their perspectives on health care reform. “While many anti-reform groups attempt to portray small business owners as allies, in speaking personally with hundreds of Montana business owners, I found that this depiction is false,” said Jeff Milchen, Statewide Organizer for Businesses for a Healthy Montana.
“Our entrepreneurs are with the vast majority of Americans who recognize that this nation’s health insurance system requires fundamental change, not diversions like tax credits which leave the root problem to fester.”
The full report (34 pp) is available online at: http://mainstreetalliance.org/wordpress/home/publications/
Charts on different aspects of the survey results are available both for Montana and the nation at: http://mainstreetalliance.org/wordpress/home/publications/
For higher resolution files, click the "all sizes" icon once you are viewing the desired image, then download. (Contact Jeff Milchen to have a high resolution file emailed directly if you have any trouble).
CONTACT: Jeff Milchen, organizer of Businesses for a Healthy Montana, Jeff-at-NWFCO.org, 406-582-1224
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