Bills target rising cost of health care

Work at the Closet Factory in Salt Lake City, and you'll likely gross about $30,000 a year. But signing up for health-care coverage will take more than a third of it, in the form of $300 per month each for yourself, your spouse and your family.

And that irks Keith Trickett, a design consultant for the company.

"Add that up and you're over $11,000 a year. And I'm afraid that 33 percent of gross income is not the sort of percentage that the average person can pay, and indeed the small employer cannot afford to pay it either. These costs are just disproportionate," he said.

That's why Trickett and a group of other business owners, supporters and lawmakers gathered Thursday to push for the passage of a couple of bills. One is HB152, now mired in the House Rules Committee. It would create a one-year small-business health-plan task force to study the issue of health coverage for employees working at Utah's small businesses.

Trickett, who has operated small businesses in nine countries and operated small businesses for more than 45 years, sees a problem of "excess administrative costs."

"We have health insurance at the Closet Factory for our employees. The costs have gone up. My 2007 quotes have just come in. They're going up 12 percent. I'm afraid I'm not in a position to put my prices up by 12 percent this year. I have many friends who are doctors, and I know that they haven't put their prices up by 12 percent this year," he said.

Ellen Reddick, president of the Vest Pocket Business Coalition, said Utah small-business premiums have been rising 10 percent to 20 percent annually and often cost twice as much as monthly mortgage payments. "It's a train running out of control, headed for a major economic derailment," she said.

"The time has come for the Legislature to take the lead and act now to help small businesses with affordable health care for their employees. Stop telling us why it can't be done and start showing us how."

Judi Hilman, executive director of the Utah Health Policy Project, said the task force would conduct an actuarial analysis, looking, for example, at the factors that affect rates quoted for premiums. "We don't have a lot of information about this in Utah," she said.

Tom Hori, owner of RedCon Construction, said his premiums have been rising at double-digit levels the past few years. "And if it keeps going in that direction, it's going to reach a point where I can't afford to cover the employees and they're going to be going without insurance," he said.