Mandates Push Healthcare, Jobs Out of Reach

If you are a small business owner, providing good health benefits to your employees is the right way to take care of your people–and it sets you apart in the competition for talented workers. 

The problem is, today you can just barely afford to provide health benefits.

As a small business owner counted on to create jobs in Connecticut, you might expect legislators to do everything in their power to make health insurance more affordable.

Unfortunately, just the opposite is happening at the state Capitol.  

Several proposed new or expanded health benefit mandates continue to advance as the end of the 2011 legislative session approaches. These mandates will immediately increase the cost of health insurance premiums, especially for small employers.

That’s right: While Connecticut’s small businesses are suffering under already high health insurance costs, some lawmakers are pushing bills that will actually increase those costs.

Higher costs mean it’s far less likely that you, as a small business owner, will be able to add jobs. It’s simple arithmetic that continues to elude many lawmakers.

So, in our challenging economic times where small companies are doing everything they can to make ends meet and provide good benefits for their employees, costly healthcare mandates in Connecticut are still increasing.

In the last days of the 2011 session, lawmakers must reject these cost-drivers so that employers can afford health insurance for their employees and be encouraged to add jobs in Connecticut.

Making healthcare less affordable is poor public policy and unfair to small businesses and the people they employ.