Healthcare, Economic Reform Top of Mind for Small Business Owners Navigating Pandemic
Just as Americans began to see the light at the end of the tunnel from this pandemic, in came another variant that has millions of small businesses owners worried that they may have to wipe the dust off their “CLOSED” signs from 2020.
Even before the rise of Omicron, recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for our nation's small businesses and entrepreneurs. As they continue to work to meet current demand and recoup revenue lost during the last two years, small business owners are calling on Congress to support their efforts with federal policy reforms. With economic recovery top of mind, small businesses owners are concerned about how rising healthcare costs weigh on their bottom lines and threaten the wellbeing of their employees and business during an ongoing global health crisis.
In this delicate economic environment, Congress should be very cautious about the potential impact of overreaching policies on businesses. A recent survey of small business owners found that 7-in-10 small business owners agree the pandemic has already made things hard enough, and they can’t afford to have government policies that disrupt day-to-day business. Additionally, 8-in-10 agree that healthcare reforms that add new costs for small businesses are high risk and would add another burden to recovering businesses. The heart and soul of the U.S. economy should not have to bear the brunt of this pandemic, and these feelings have profoundly impacted their opinions on the current healthcare debate playing out on Capitol Hill.
The vast majority of small business owners want Congress to focus more on reducing the overall cost of healthcare rather than simply focusing on drug pricing, considering that rising healthcare costs often force small business owners to ask their employees to pay higher percentages of health insurance costs or decrease businesses' ability to offer healthcare benefits.
When businesses cannot provide appropriate health coverage, they often struggle to attract and retain employees because they can’t provide the benefits that so many need. These are legitimate fears for the millions of small businesses across the country fighting to keep their doors open. Not to mention, the nearly million Americans who depend on employer-provided health coverage. A group of this massive size should be encouraging lawmakers to prioritize policies that ensure businesses can offer coverage so their employees can access healthcare.
Instead of addressing these concerns, Congress has proposed several misaligned drug pricing policies to give the government more control and power over healthcare spending and decisions, ultimately harming access and eroding quality. Specifically, proposed negotiation policies would significantly undermine biopharmaceutical investment, mimicking Europe's disastrous government price setting and restrictive regulations. The reason the U.S. leads the world in medical breakthroughs and lifesaving drug innovations is because of our free-market approach and entrepreneurial spirit.
With potential new variants on the horizon, lawmakers should be mindful of this and consider how imposing government price-setting schemes on our healthcare system would destroy this success and imperil our businesses.
Not only would they lead to fewer treatments for COVID-19 and other diseases, but these policies would fall hardest on the smaller entrepreneurial enterprises that invest in drug research and development. Small to mid-sized businesses dominate the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector and are indispensable in developing the medicines so many of us depend on to stay healthy. Restricting what treatments are available would only raise healthcare costs and make care less affordable for small business owners and employees alike.
Our organizations know that when policymakers in Washington prioritize the needs and success of America's small and minority business communities, our country's broader economic outlook improves. During an everchanging pandemic, we encourage Congress to abandon policies that erode access and instead focus on helping small businesses recover and get back to being the backbone of the U.S. economy. Being “CLOSED” for business is no longer an option.
Karen Kerrigan is the President & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a nonpartisan advocacy, research, and education organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship. Ramiro A. Cavazos is the President & CEO of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which actively promotes the economic growth, development, and interests of 5 million Hispanic-owned businesses.
