Pass universal healthcare to end the small business coverage crisis.

Pass universal healthcare. Employers are staring down an 8.2% increase in health benefit costs per employee in 2027 — the highest jump since 2003 — and without plan changes, it could hit 11%. Small businesses are getting crushed the hardest, and the patchwork fixes being floated — HRAs, high-deductible plans, gap insurance — are band-aids on a broken system. When a small business with five employees has one worker face a serious illness, the ripple effect can force the owner to drop coverage entirely. Large employers can self-insure. Small ones can't. That structural inequality doesn't get fixed by tweaking the margins — it gets fixed by removing employer-sponsored insurance from the equation altogether. Universal healthcare takes the burden off every business owner who is currently choosing between keeping coverage, freezing wages, or raising prices. The National Federation of Independent Business's own president said policymakers lose sight of small businesses when crafting healthcare policy. Here's a chance to prove that wrong. A universal system means no employer gets left behind because of the size of their payroll. Stop designing policy that works for the big guys and pass something that works for everyone.