Out of Options: Why So Many Workers in Small Businesses Lack Affordable Health Insurance and How Health Reform Can Help

This Commonwealth Fund report analyzes small business -sponsored health insurance costs and coverage.

From the Report:

Rising premiums have weakened small busi­nesses’ ability to offer comprehensive coverage or have led them to drop coverage altogether. In 2008, less than half of firms with fewer than 10 employees offered health benefits, compared with nearly all firms with more than 200 employees. When small employers do offer health insurance, their workers pay substan­tially higher premiums for family coverage and face higher deductibles, on average, compared with those working for larger businesses. As a result, millions of small-business workers are either uninsured or, when they have health benefits, spend a large share of their income on out-of-pocket health care expenses.

The Commonwealth Fund. (2009). Out of options: why so many workers in small businesses lack affordable health insurance and how health reform can help. M. M. Doty, S. R. Collins, S. D. Rustgi, and J. L. Nicholson.

Full report: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2009/Sep/1316_Doty_out_of_options_ib_FINAL_v2.pdf