Cries for help from small business owners and those self-employed

We all know health insurance premiums are absurdly high--- and they keep getting higher each year. For some large corporations who employ hundreds, if not thousands, of employees, this is a major expense in their books. If large corporations have problems with the high cost of insurance premiums, what are small businesses and those self-employed to do?

The article in the New York Times, "Small Businesses’ Premiums Soar After Illness" addresses this issue. An added challenge is that many states allow "insurers to raise health premiums substantially for small employers when one worker incurs significant medical bills." So basically, either you (as a business owner) don't offer health insurance to your employees or you hope that your employees don't get seriously sick/injured (Ironically, you pay premiums so that your employees are protected should they become seriously sick/injured—that's what health insurance is for to begin with.).

According to federal census data, "small-business employees are one of the fastest-growing segments of the nation's 44 million uninsured; they now represent at least 20 percent of the total."

This is an issue that needs to be addressed in the presidential campaigns. The media focuses on the low income and children, and young adults who are uninsured -- however, the attention should also be focused on the small businesses who can’t afford to offer health insurance to their employees.