Small biz & health care

AS THE OWNER of a small business, it's clear to me that the debate over health-care reform has reached a critical moment.

Over the summer, a shrill minority monopolized the public stage by playing on people's fears in their attempt to derail much needed change. It's time to take back the debate. The owners of small businesses must sift through the flurry of falsehoods and misstatements to discern the truth.

We are sinking under the weight of health-care costs and the cost of not insuring all our employees. Reform is needed to keep us afloat and ensure that our businesses can succeed.

Small Business Majority, a national nonprofit small-business advocacy group focusing on health-care reform, recently released the results of a survey of Pennsylvania small-business owners. The poll showed that 87 percent of small-business owners not offering health insurance say they can't afford to, and of those who do, 71 percent are struggling to provide it.

These statistics are more than numbers on a page to me and so many other small-business owners I know. They represent the challenges we face in our daily struggle to balance skyrocketing health-care costs with the risk of leaving our employees and ourselves uninsured.

When Small Business Majority asked business owners in Pennsylvania how we feel about the key elements in the reform packages pending in Congress, an overwhelming majority expressed support. According to the poll, 90 percent want health-insurance reform - specifically the elimination of pre-existing-condition rules - and 72 percent support the sharing of responsibility for financing health care among individuals, employers, insurance companies and the government.

Notably, 47 percent of the survey respondents identified themselves as Republican, 28 percent as Democrat and 17 percent as independent. These are the small-business owners who spend their days running their restaurants, shops and stores instead of making a scene at town hall meetings.

Contrary to what's reported by the media, this shows that there's bipartisan support for reform, and those who suggest that pro-business = anti-reform are wrong.

Over the 13 years that I've been in the restaurant businesses, my health-care premiums have increased an average of 15 percent a year. At the same time, the quality of our health-care plans has decreased, with higher co-pays and deductibles and less coverage.

If we are going to survive in this economy, this can't continue. The status quo is no longer viable, and my fellow small business owners, putting in long hours running restaurants and stores and working from home, know it.

I employ 60 full- and part-time employees at the Trolley Car Diner & Deli, but I'm able to provide health insurance only for my management staff because of the cost. Some employees receive only catastrophic coverage and even more have no coverage at all. It's incredibly frustrating to pay so much each month, receive so little and insure so few.

I'm not the only one who feels this way. Small Business Majority's polling shows that Pennsylvania small-business owners' No. 1 concern for health care is controlling costs. And, like me, most support real reform that would accomplish this.

Fearmongers and naysayers can't be allowed to manipulate us into thinking that reform is out of reach. We're in the thick of one of the most important policy debates of our time, and the truth is we're closer to effecting real change than ever before. We must remain committed to seeing this through. The economic health of small businesses and their employees depend on it.

Ken Weinstein is the owner of the Trolley Car Diner & Deli in Mount Airy.