By Maria Garriga, New Haven Register, Conn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Dec. 9--NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Small-business owners who are women or minorities are less likely to be able to afford to offer health care insurance to their employees, according to a survey by the Small Business Health Care Network.
The network will announce the results of its survey today at 9:45 a.m. at Sandra's restaurant, 46 Whitney Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
Four groups in the network conducted in-depth interviews with a total of 269 area small-business owners, primarily minorities and women.
The Grand Avenue Village Association, the Greater New Haven Business and Professional Association, the Spanish American Merchants Association and the Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners all participated in the network surveys.
State Comptroller Nancy Wyman will be at the meeting to discuss her proposals to lower health care premiums for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
'While insurance companies are paying million-dollar bonuses to their executives, tens of thousands of hardworking people go home from their jobs every night worried because they don't have health insurance,' Wyman said.
The network surveys, conducted from March through October, show that New Haven area small businesses in the network have been struggling with health care insurance issues more than the average small business in the state.
Although numerous surveys have shown that small businesses have struggled with the double-digit rise in health insurance costs over the last few years, none have been as in depth as the one conducted by the Small Business Health Care Network, said Kate Busch, a senior program and development officer at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, which started and funds the network.
The foundation is trying to develop legislative solutions to the health insurance affordability problem.
'Cost is always the No. 1 barrier,' said Michael Miller, director of health affairs for Community Catalyst, a Boston-based health care advocacy group that analyzed the network's survey results.
He noted that 14 percent of adults in Connecticut lack health insurance, and 40 percent of the business owners in the network do not offer health insurance coverage.
'How can we address racial disparity in health and economic status if you can't get people affordable health coverage?' Miller said.
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