California

From a national standpoint, California is seen as a leader in the healthcare debate. John Arensmeyer recognized the need for a small business voice at the table during the reform discussions, and founded Small Business Majority in 2005. Our headquarters, in the San Francisco Bay Area, provides a base for outreach to small businesses throughout the state, and keeps us close to California’s state legislators as well.

Opinion research we conducted in the state in 2007 made the difficulties small businesses are encountering with out-of-control healthcare costs glaringly apparent. In August of 2009 we conducted a follow-up survey of 700 small business owners—including 100 Latino and 100 rural business owners—on their perspectives on healthcare reform. The results show the continuing, and increasingly, negative impact that high-priced health insurance is having on small business growth in California, as well as the need for small business owners to join together in their demand for change.

Small Business Majority is building a statewide network of spokespeople who want to ensure that legislators and others involved in public policy hear the real voices of small business. These small business people reflect the geographic and demographic diversity of California, and represent a broad range of industries. Part of our role is communicating their stories through case studies, in-depth opinion research, interviews and other media outlets, on both the local and national levels.

While California healthcare legislation has taken a back seat to national efforts in 2009, we are actively engaged in newly introduced legislation dealing with a number of important issues, including transparency, COBRA coverage extension and cost containment. We recently participated in a press conference in the State Capital Building to endorse AB786 (Jones), which would sort health insurance policies into five categories, ranging from “comprehensive” to “catastrophic”. This would particularly help small businesses better understand coverage options (and compare apples to apples) and also weed out junk insurance. We’ll continue to evaluate pending and future bills based on their potential impact on small business.

Small Business Majority has a full California public relations plan in place. We attend and participate in numerous conferences throughout the state. Our CEO was a featured honoree at the annual Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP) conference in 2008, and spoke on a panel at the ITUP Conference in February 2009. Following up on the White House healthcare summit on March 5—to which Small Business Majority was one of only two business organizations invited—we participated in the California healthcare forum, which was organized jointly by the White House and Governor Schwarzenegger’s office, on April 6.

We keep in contact with California’s highly influential US senators and representatives in the House, and will continue to work through the media and our network of small business owners throughout the state to keep their issues front and center in the national debate.

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