| Small Business for Affordable Healthcare recently completed a scientific survey of a randomly-selected sample of small business owners and managers across California. The purpose of the survey was to better understand how California’s entrepreneurs feel about healthcare costs and about the various proposals to change the healthcare financing system that are currently pending in Sacramento. |
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| Key findings from the Survey: |
|  | 80% of those who expressed an opinion felt that employers should pay something to provide healthcare to their employees—four times as many as those who felt that employers should not have to contribute anything (20%). |
| | 75% ranked the availability of affordable healthcare as extremely or very important. |
| | 57% regard health care financing as a shared responsibility among individuals, employers and government – three times as many as do not (19%). |
| | 55% were in favor of paying into a statewide pool that would enable their employees to obtain coverage at favorable rates – over three times greater than those opposed (17%). |
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| Regarding specific pending proposals being considered now in California, a substantial plurality (near-majority) said that they favored the basic outline of the health care reform legislation (AB 8) proposed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President pro Tem Don Perata requiring businesses that do not offer insurance to to pay 7.5% of their payroll into a pool from which their employees must purchase insurance. A slightly larger plurality supported the basic outline of the proposal made by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger requiring all Californians to have health insurance and mandating businesses that do not offer insurance to pay 4% of their payroll into a fund. A small plurality said that they favored the single-payer plan (SB 840) authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl. |
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| Press Release - PDF |
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| Survey Report – PDF |
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| Report Detail – PowerPoint (4MB) |
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| Survey Questionnaire – PDF |
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