Opinion poll: Small businesses struggling with rising healthcare costs, support bipartisan policy solutions

Small businesses are rebounding from issues stemming from the pandemic, but rising healthcare costs are hurting their bottom lines and limiting their growth. New opinion polling reveals that small business owners strongly support policy solutions that lower costs by banning dishonest billing practices, increasing transparency and promoting competition in the healthcare industry.

The poll reveals that most small business owners report that their costs for insurance premiums, deductibles, copays, prescription drug copays and hospitals visits have risen over the past few years. As a result of these increasing prices, they are moving to different insurance plans with less coverage, increasing employee contributions to health plans and cutting other employee benefits. Some have even had to drop health coverage altogether.

They are strongly supportive of a number of bipartisan solutions being considered by Congress that would tackle rising costs, level the playing field and increase competition, particularly within the hospital and pharmaceutical industries. In particular, small businesses believe that healthcare providers should be required to publicly post the prices they charge for services. Additionally, they think the government should ban “facility fees” and unfair billing practices, set limits on what hospitals can charge for particular services, and have greater authority to block mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry.

Small businesses need access to high-quality, affordable healthcare to thrive, and rising costs are limiting their potential. The ever-increasing cost of care poses a significant challenge to their ability to grow their business and offer a crucial benefit to their employees. Entrepreneurs need Congress to take action on healthcare costs and transparency so they can focus on growing their businesses and continue to offer coverage to their employees.