Appeared on May 30, 2009
Management Professor and Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives Donna DeCarolis, Ph.D., discussed the increasing decision small business have to make regarding health coverage for their employees. Increasing costs of healthcare premiums and decreasing sales in the economy is forcing small businesses to either drop health coverage or lay off workers. 10% of small businesses are considering eliminating health care coverage this year compared to 3% percent in 2005. There are ways of reducing healthcare costs for small businesses such as cost sharing with employees, requiring generic drugs to fill prescriptions and shopping around for competitive insurance prices.