A survey of small businesses released last year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
revealed that health care costs are a top concern of business owners. While the entrepreneurs believe health benefits are a powerful incentive in retaining good employees, they are struggling to keep up with increasing insurance costs.
I know. With a significant number of my Indiana bankruptcy clients either small business owners themselves or working for a small business with 50 or fewer employees, or perhaps even recently laid off from a small business, medical debt seems to be playing a larger and larger role in Hoosiers turning to the bankruptcy court to seek protection from creditors.
In February of this year, the SCHIP plan went into effect, providing healthcare to millions of children, but the sad fact is, almost 47,000,000 people in America are uninsured.
The June 8 issue of the Indianapolis Business Journal reported that "health insurance premiums for the average family are $1000 a year higher because of costs of healthcare for the uninsured." The advocacy group Families USA calls this a "hidden tax".
In yesterday's blog post, "The Bankruptcy House That Hayden Built", I related the story of a young woman forced into bankruptcy. In answer to one of the comments on her own blog, Hayden Tomkins says something that rings very true to me:
"I think what strikes me the most is how often it doesn't matter how intelligent or well-educated you are. People of all levels find themselves in a financial disaster zone."
It's precisely for this reason the bankruptcy safety net was created!
