Health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable for small business owners in the Northwest, according to a study released Wednesday by a Seattle-based social justice group.
Moreover, the kinds of health insurance that are available often don't meet the needs of small business owners or their employees, said Julie Chinitz, one of the authors of the study prepared by the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations.
The report, "2006 Northwest Health Gap Study: Quality Health Insurance Out of Reach for Small Businesses," concludes that there is a widening gap between employer-based insurance coverage and government-supported care options such as the Oregon Health Plan.
People in the gap may be completely uninsured or have insurance that does not cover important services or imposes high out-of-pocket costs that impede their access to care, Chinitz said. The gap is a problem nationwide, but it's growing faster in the Northwest than other areas.
Researchers based their conclusions on interviews with owners of 388 small businesses (defined as those with 50 or fewer employees) in Oregon, Washington and Idaho from May to August 2006. On average the businesses surveyed had 4.85 employees.
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In Oregon, the researchers talked with business owners in Ashland, Central Point, Medford, La Grande and Portland. Respondents were promised confidentiality, but several, including Ron Roth, owner of Geppetto's Restaurant in Ashland, shared their personal experiences in the report.
Roth was among the two-thirds of survey respondents who do not offer health insurance. He said he provided insurance for employees for the first 25 years of the restaurant's 29 years in business, but rising costs finally forced him to drop it.
"In the beginning, all my employees who worked 25 hours a week were covered, with dependent coverage available for full-time employees," he said. "As the cost of insurance went up, we had to increase the cost of deductibles, and charge employees for a portion of the coverage. Finally, we were no longer able to provide any coverage at all."
Roth said the solution is a single-payer system that covers everybody, "like almost every other part of the developed world has. What it will take to get there, I don't know."
Northwest Federation of Community Organizations is a regional nonprofit that provides support for community-based organizations in four states. Its Oregon affiliate is Oregon Action, a grassroots citizen action organization that works on social and economic issues.
Rich Rohde, Oregon Action's Rogue Valley organizer, said small businesses are looking for creative solutions to provide health insurance for their employees.
To solve the problem, the report recommends "shared responsibility" for health care. It suggests creating buying pools that would include small businesses, individuals, government organizations and large employers, to gain access to comprehensive health insurance.
It also recommends states expand their public health insurance programs, but offers no suggestions for funding such growth.
On the Web: www.nwfco.org/
