Health Insurance And The Small Business Bind

Whether over the phone or through the mail, J. Kelly Referrals and Information Services in Little Rock connects people to services. CEO Mary Parham says her small business with up to 40 employees is a community outreach. "If they need to be referred to a doctor, lawyer, electrician, plumber," says Parham.

Parham left a more than two-decade career in health care to give people like her office assistant, a single mother of two, a shot. However, health care needs followed Parham. "I do not have the means as a small business owner to offer her the health insurance and the retirement that she needs," says Parham. This case isn't isolated. Congressional research shows more than 500,000 Arkansas are uninsured. For Parham, she says not being able to offer health insurance for her employees is hard. "It hurts me; it hurts me as a Christian. It hurts me as a business owner. It hurts me because she's part of this family that I cannot offer her simple plan," says Parham.

Small businesses are becoming the norm here in Arkansas. A congressional study shows about 56 percent of Arkansans work someplace that has 100 or fewer employees. In a discussion Tuesday, Senator Blanche Lincoln described the issue of small businesses without health care insurance as a crisis. "It's a critically important issue not only with those who are uninsured, but it has a huge impact on our economy. And it also has a huge impact on the cost of health care," says Lincoln.

During Senator Lincoln's meeting with small business owners in Little Rock, including Parham, she shared a plan to make health insurance more affordable. "We need to really, really put it into action, not just talk it to death, but really do something," says Parham. A congressional study also found that 22 percent of Arkansas small businesses with 50 or fewer employees offer health insurance compared to 43 percent of firms the same size nationwide.

For more information on the Small Business Health Options Program click here

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Lincoln, small business owners talk about health insurance

Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008

By Jason Wiest

Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK - Sen. Blanche Lincoln met with owners and employees of small businesses and the self-employed Tuesday to discuss legislation that would make health insurance more affordable and accessible for them.

Lincoln, along with three other U.S. lawmakers, are working on a comprehensive plan tabbed the Small Business Health Options Program. The legislation would allow small businesses and the self-employed to band together in a statewide or nationwide pool to obtain lower health insurance prices by spreading their risk over a larger number of participants

The proposal could come before a Senate panel this fall, Lincoln said.

The roundtable discussion followed the same type of meeting in Jonesboro.

Of Arkansas' total uninsured population, more than 56 percent are employed by a business with 100 or fewer employees, according to the Nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Twenty-two percent of Arkansas' small businesses currently offer health insurance coverage, compared to 43 percent nationally, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a private nonprofit organization that focuses on major health care issues.

"It's not fair for me to hire these individuals and not offer them insurance - they have children," said Mary Parham, owner of J Kelly Referrals & Information Services Inc., a call center and referral resource.

But Parham herself does not have insurance, she said.

"I be careful when I walk out into the street," Parham said. "I don't want to trip over anything because if I break something, it's going to stay broke."

On the other hand, Betty Conner, owner of Betty's Beauty Bazaar and Barber Express, pays for her own insurance, which has a $10,000 deductible, rendering it useless in non-emergency instances, she said.

"This legislation will help our small businesses - the economic backbone of our communities - offer health insurance to their employees, which helps with recruitment, retention, employee performance and the overall success of the business," Lincoln said.