Most Small Business Owners in First Survey of its Kind Oppose Making Private Employers Provide Health Insurance

By the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations

ALEXANDRIA, VA. (Dec. 4, 2006) - Government should let the market work, according to a new survey, and not require small businesses to provide health insurance.

More than 700 small-business owners responded to the survey by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, or NAPEO; two-thirds oppose the growing number of bills in most state legislatures this year requiring private employers to solve the health insurance crisis.

Increasingly, small businesses outsource many human resources responsibilities, including payroll, workers compensation and health benefits, to professional employer organizations, or PEOs.

The trade association's first quarterly survey also found more than half the companies responding said their employees were interested in wellness programs to prevent ailments like diabetes and heart disease.

As health costs jump, almost all the companies said they won't raise the amount employees contribute to their health benefits next year. They didn't explicitly rule out raising employees' out-of-pocket expenses - what they actually pay at the doctor's office - like deductibles and co-payments, as companies large and small across the nation are planning.

While many of the small companies surveyed oppose government requiring them to provide health benefits, almost all - 95 percent - already do. That is unusually high, because soaring costs make benefits especially hard for small businesses to afford. (Fewer than half of American companies with less than 10 employees offer insurance, says the Kaiser Family Foundation.)

But companies that use professional employer organizations find PEOs make it easier and more cost-effective to offer health benefits by assuming the work of administering a health-care plan.

"If America is going to resolve the health-care crisis, it will take all hands on deck," said Milan P. Yager, executive vice president of the trade association. "The small business owners and operators in this survey - working with their PEOs - are champions of health care options that match today's workforce."

The trade association itself is neutral on government-mandated insurance. It simply asks that new laws requiring businesses with a certain number of employees to provide health insurance treat small businesses that use professional employer organizations the same as other small businesses.

To read the full report, visit www.napeo.org. For more information: Edie Clark, 703-739-8162, edie@napeo.org; or Michael Flagg, 703-739-8152, mike@napeo.org.


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