• The human side of health care gets overlooked when people talk about money and statistics. Business owners look at spreadsheets of income and expenses; they can't afford to offer health insurance. The wages they pay employees won't cover the astronomical cost of health care. People without insurance get sicker before they see a doctor and are less likely to engage in preventive care. The ethics of providing medical care are lost in the insurance debate.
  
  

Cost of Private Insurance

• The cost of insuring employees under plans with private health insurance companies is one of the greatest pressures on U.S. business owners today. According to a Business Roundtable CEO Survey in 2004, the financial expense was almost half (43 percent) of a handful of necessary business-related costs. Because private health insurance plans are prohibitively expensive, they are a massive financial drain on businesses and individuals.
  
  

Government Health Care

• According to research conducted by the Employment Policies Institute, "...while the employer mandate may provide the largest drop in the number of uninsured, it does so at the highest cost in terms of lost jobs, foregone wages, and increased employer spending. A Medicaid expansion, on the other hand, will actually increase employment at roughly the same cost per newly insured individual as the employer mandate." Bearing in mind that Medicaid means government-sponsored, in plain language the researchers concluded that only mandating employers to cover their employees would result in higher unemployment rates due to rising costs, but that including a government plan with this mandate will both get more people covered and not result in crippling costs to businesses. Businesses would not have to lay off employees due to the health care coverage.
  
  

Children and Coverage

• While the new health care laws will not be entirely in effect before 2014, some are in place, including more access to coverage for children. Private health insurance companies may no longer deny a child coverage due to pre-existing conditions, a major relief for any parent or guardian of a disabled child. After 2014, these children may not be denied insurance when they reach adulthood. More coverage means a healthier, happier society. Access to coverage also means less time and money spent litigating whether treatment will be covered. For example, the family of a child who needs hearing aids should not have to pay a lawyer to get the hearing aids paid for by the health insurer. The new laws guarantee more coverage for children so there will be less frustration, time and money spent demanding access to care.