As the economy continues to tank so that the number of Americans without health insurance and the number of small businesses that can afford to provide its employees.
A recent survey by the NFIB Research Foundation, a small business advocacy group, found that only 47 percent of small business owners offer employee health benefits. Those who employs 20 or more people were more than twice as likely to offer employee health benefits as well as those with less than 10
The survey showed that low numbers are mainly a result of new small businesses opting not to cover employees. Most small businesses that offer the advantages they offered during the fall and they are reluctant for fear of losing good employees.
"It's much better for employee morale if a small business owner never offers health benefits, but it has to offer them and then be forced to withdraw it because it's too expensive to continue,"said William J. Dennis, NFIB's senior research fellow . "Small business owners experience considerable turmoil in their early years. They often have cash flow problems and are reluctant to incur additional costs such as health insurance. What is new in this picture is that it appears that new small-business owners are waiting longer or choosing do not offer health insurance benefits to their employees at all. "
The fact that new small businesses do not offer the benefits of choosing a worrying trend because of the rapid turnover of small business population. If this trend continues, the number of employers who offer benefits will never increase. And that will hurt small businesses, because it will limit the talent pool from which to draw.
What can I do?
Small businesses are not alone in dealing with health care costs (and premiums) in the current economic climate. U.S. Census Bureau reports 47 million people, or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population, were without health insurance in 2006
Unfortunately, the small business owner, a new legal approaches to the uninsured can actually hurt them. One popular choice is the "pay-or-play" mandate, in which employers are required to provide or health insurance for their employees or pay a penalty to offset costs borne by the government to provide health care for the uninsured. The rules would probably only apply to full time.
Proponents say such mandates could significantly reduce the ranks of the uninsured, since the vast majority of uninsured are in families with at least one full-time worker. Many of them are low-income families, suggesting that such measures could benefit the working poor.
Opponents argue that many low-wage workers will just be paid less, reduced to part-time or cancellation to offset insurance costs.
In his paper, "Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment, " researchers Katherine Baicker and Helen Levy found several factors influencing the extent to which such a mandate cost more jobs:
 • Insurance costs.
 • What is the cost of coverage will be passed on to workers through lower wages.
 • How many uninsured workers have earnings so close to the minimum wage to their salaries can not be reduced enough to offset the cost of new coverage.
The authors found that the mandate would still leave 54 percent of American workers without coverage.
"The vast majority of those who benefit from pay or play mandate live in families with incomes twice the poverty line or higher, depending on how much coverage is determined, the mandate will leave a significant proportion of the working poor ineligible for such benefits either because their hourly wage rate is too high, or they work for smaller exempt firms, "the authors wrote.
Most experts agree that such mandates are bad for small businesses. Employers are faced with difficult choices. In the NFIB survey, only 20 percent of small employers said they would simply provide security as needed. Many more said they would either cut jobs or move more employees on part-time status.
The movement of people on a part-time job is a particularly attractive option for small business owners. In fact, as a part-time employees are treated is a key factor affecting the small business support pay or play legislation.
According to the NFIB "treatment of these workers will be changed in relation to costs in one way or the other, providing small employers' relative strong incentive for change."
Small business experts agree that, if part-time employees covered by the mandate, most employers will respond simply remove the job, adding that the unemployment rate and doing nothing for the uninsured rate.
Small business owners have always faced an uncertain future, but the current economic crisis and health care make this extremely difficult time to start the steps.
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