FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Edie
Clark, NAPEO
(703) 739-8162
edie@napeo.org
Mike Flagg, NAPEO
(703) 739-8174
mike@napeo.org
Most
Small Business Owners in First Survey of Its Kind
Offer Health Benefits
But Oppose Government Mandating Them
Alexandria, Va. (December 4, 2006) —A majority of owners of small
businesses in a new survey say they oppose government requiring them to offer
health benefits, but most already do, bucking the national trend in the small
business community. More than 700 small-business owners served by professional
employer organizations, or PEOs, responded to the November survey by the
National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, or NAPEO.
The
amount of companies in the survey that offer benefits - 95 percent -- is
unusually high, because soaring costs make benefits especially hard for small
businesses to afford. (Fewer than half of American companies with less than 10
employees offer health benefits, says the Kaiser Family Foundation.)
Increasingly,
small businesses outsource many human resources responsibilities, including
payroll, workers compensation and health benefits, to PEOs. The trade
association's first quarterly survey also found more than half the companies
responding said their employees were interested in wellness programs to prevent
ailments like diabetes and heart disease.
As health costs jump, almost all the companies said they won't raise the amount
employees contribute to their health benefits next year. They didn't explicitly
rule out raising employees' out-of-pocket expenses - what they actually pay at
the doctor's office - like deductibles and co-payments, as companies large and
small across the nation are planning.
But
companies that use professional employer organizations find PEOs make it easier
and more cost-effective to offer health benefits by assuming the work of
administering a health-care plan.
"If
America is going to resolve the health-care crisis, it will take all hands on
deck," said Milan P. Yager, executive vice president of the trade
association. "The small business owners and operators in this survey -
working with their PEOs - are champions of health care options that match
today's workforce."
NAPEO itself is neutral
on government-mandated insurance. It simply asks that new laws requiring
businesses with a certain number of employees to provide health insurance treat
small businesses that use professional employer organizations the same as other
small businesses.
To read the full report: http://www.napeo.org/newscenter/research.cfm
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NAPEO,
the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, is the
recognized "Voice of the PEO Industry.®" NAPEO has approximately 370
PEO members found in all 50 states, representing more than 70 percent of the
revenues of the $51 billion PEO industry. PEOs enable clients to
cost-effectively outsource the management of human resources, employee benefits,
payroll and workers' compensation. PEO clients focus on their core competencies
to maintain and grow their bottom line. To learn more about the PEO industry and
how PEOs contribute to small businesses' success, visit the NAPEO For more
information about NAPEO or the PEO industry, visit the NAPEO Web site,
www.napeo.org, or contact NAPEO
headquarters at (703) 836-0466 in Alexandria, Virginia.