GF: Milstead Automotive is a family-owned company that has operated tow trucks and automotive repair services here in Spring (Texas) for 37 years. The company offers three separate health insurance plans for its 150 employees, partly as a way of keeping experienced, hardworking people on staff. But Milstead Vice President Amy Milstead-Ellzey says more than 40% price hikes by health insurance companies this year are making it hard for the company and its workers.
AM: It's terrible! We can't afford a 44% increase on medical insurance, so that in turn makes us have to start looking elsewhere for different plans. It makes us have to cut the plan back some...(OK! He'll be there is just a second.)...
GF: She says the company wants to maintain health insurance, not only as an incentive, but as a way of maintaining each worker's health and productivity.
AM: That common flu or cold that turns into strep throat, you know, that could take a whole other week or so to get over, versus if he's got insurance, he can go to the doctor, get some medicine, then be back to work.
GF: Ellzey says Milstead workers are like family, and many are in fact, related. Scott Schaeffer, who manages transmission service, and his wife Michelle, who works in accounting, say the health insurance is one of the things that keeps them here.
SS: It's more than the health insurance. I mean, it's...
MS: Well, yeah, but that definitely helps! I mean, yeah, you don't want to go without health insurance these days. It would bankrupt you if something major were to happen.
GF: But, they're concerned about their daughter, who was covered by their plan until she was 25 years old, and then dropped.
MS: She's 26. She doesn't have insurance. She's still going to school. She works part-time. She can't afford healthcare, you know, so she puts off going to the doctor.
GF: Scott and Michelle Schaeffer believe any healthcare reform should start with an effort to hold down costs and regulate the private insurance industry. Amy Ellzey agrees that something should be done to better control insurance companies.
AM: Our industry just went through a huge regulation. And so, they're controlling our rates, they're doing everything they can to watch what we're doing and to take control over how we charge our customers. Why aren't they doing that with insurance?
GF: Insurance companies, however, say they're already regulated by each state, and that their price increases reflect cost increases in the healthcare system. But whatever the reason, high costs are driving many small companies away from providing health insurance as a benefit. According to the Small Business Association, over 60% of companies like Milstead offered their employees health insurance in 1993, but that it dropped to only 38% last year, leaving many workers on their own, looking for a policy they can afford. Greg Flakas, VOA News, Spring, Texas.

标题
Companies Face Rising Health Costs (VOA)

视频介绍
Voice of America - September 16, 2009
Report on the problems faced by small businesses and their employees in the United States in obtaining health insurance.

Speaker: Greg Flakas (GF), Reporter, VOA News