Business for Shared Prosperity

Albany Business Review, 6/6/08

More than 80 percent of small businesses in New York state believe that a public-private partnership is the best way to provide health insurance to their workers, according, to a new survey.

The survey, by BALCONY-The Business and Labor Coalition of New York; the American Cancer Society; AARP; and the Small Business Majority, a national advocacy group, found that half of the state's small businesses--defined as those with fewer than 500 employees--do not provide health insurance. Of those that do, a large number are cutting benefits or increasing the costs paid by employees.

Of the 409 businesses surveyed in late April and early May, 81 percent said they favored a system jointly financed by business, employees and government. Nearly three-quarters of respondents favored giving businesses the option of paying into a statewide pool for employee insurance.

"Small businesses are facing a big problem, with many of them dropping and cutting back benefits because of rising costs of both insurance and pharmaceuticals, but they don't want to abandon the struggle," said Bruce Ventimiglia, co-chair of BALCONY and chairman of Saratoga Capital Management in Garden City. "The business owners tell us they want to be part of the solution."

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