Survey: Insurance top problem for small business

The sixth edition of Small-Business Problems & Priorities, co-sponsored by NFIB and Wells Fargo, measures which aspects of running a business are most problematic for small-business owners.

While “health-care costs” retained the same top ranking that it has held since 1986, the number of respondents citing the issue as “critical” (the most severe rating possible), spiked dramatically. In 2000, 47 percent of those surveyed cited health-care costs as a “critical” problem. In 2004, two-thirds of respondents listed health care costs as a “critical” problem, an 18 percentage-point increase over a four-year period.

Five of the top 10 problems worrying small-business owners appeared in the “costs” cluster. In addition to health insurance, these included the cost and availability of liability insurance, workers’ compensation costs, energy costs (natural gas, gasoline, propane diesel and fuel oil) and electricity rates.