Faces Of The Health-care Crisis

By Chris Frates

(The Politico)  The National Federation of Independent Business is on the Hill today, distributing a new booklet to congressional offices titled, “The Faces of the Healthcare Crisis: Small Business in America.”

The compendium details the difficulties small business owners face in getting health care. The effort is designed to send a message to Congress and the next president that “small businesses are demanding solutions to rising health care costs and they expect reform that works for them.”

One fairly typical vignette, Rich Gallo, owner of Office Outlet in Indiana, Pa., said he cannot afford to offer his employees health-care coverage.

And while he was searching for individual coverage, Gallo had a heart attack and put off going to the hospital because he didn’t have insurance – a delay that could have killed him. The $200,000 trip, he said, “makes me realize how we really need reform to make sure that small business people can get the coverage they need at the price they can afford.”

The push is part of NFIB’s Solutions Start Here campaign to pass health care reform that benefits small businesses.