Focusing on South Carolina
August 2009
Focus:
Small Business and Health Insurance
SC Statistics:
Small businesses have a particularly difficult time offering health benefits to employees. Insurance companies rate small businesses differently because there are fewer lives among which to spread the risk of illness and, therefore, cost. For this reason, small businesses are typically charged more per person for health care coverage than large businesses.
- The number of small business owners who are able to provide health insurance to employees dropped nationally from 67% in 1995 to 38% in 20081.
- Since 2001, the proportion of companies employing less than 10 people that are able to provide coverage has decreased by 16%, and more than half have reduced benefits in some manner.
Why is this a public health priority?
South Carolina has a high proportion of small businesses (85% of businesses in the state employ fewer than 20 employees and 96% employ fewer than 100 employees2) so these trends have affected our state disproportionately.
What is the role of SCPHI in addressing this priority?
Understanding the scope of the problem of the uninsured and underinsured in South Carolina is critical. As such, SCPHI is assessing available data and compiling a comprehensive report on these issues. That report—to be released later this month—will summarize the existing data and provide an analysis of what information is needed in order to better understand and address the challenges for our state’s population in regard to health care coverage.
Who are SCPHI’s key partners in this effort?
Office of Research and Statistics
_____________________________
1Small business blog, Washingtonpost.com, March 26, 2009.
2South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, April, 2009.