A testimonial from Karen B., a home care agency manager in Michigan:
I am a manager for a home-care agency with between 150 and 200 employees. I feel caught between a rock and a hard spot because I have so many employees and so little profit margin. There is no way I can afford to offer health benefits. It’s a horrible place to be in. If anybody in my family were to get sick, we have insurance, but my workers don’t.
Ninety percent of our clients are private pay. The problem is that the average person isn’t able to pay the amount that I would have to charge to provide health benefits or higher wages. There is a policy out now that costs $56 dollars per month per employee– it’s a group of hospitals that have gotten together to provide health insurance to small businesses. I can’t even afford that.
Recently I found out about an insurance broker who was offering to work with uninsured people to get them health benefits at minimal cost. I talked him about my employees, and then I encouraged my employees to call him. But he wouldn’t return their calls. Later he told me my people were ‘high-risk’ and he wouldn’t cover them.
If there was a mandate tomorrow that I had to provide health insurance, I would have to close my doors. I don’t know what the answer is, but I think it is imperative that we work together to do something.
