Matt Bandyk of U.S. News and World Report recently interviewed Chief Counsel for Advocacy Thomas Sullivan. The interview, posted in the October 17 online edition, covers what Chief Counsel Sullivan sees as the major issues facing small business today.
In answering the first question, Tom points to the cost of healthcare as the most important concern:
During your tenure at the SBA, what changes have you seen in terms of the most important issues affecting small-business people?
The biggest issue stays the same. The one issue that I have consistently heard all over the country meeting with small businesses is healthcare. And not just access to healthcare but cost of healthcare. That’s the key distinction that seems to be lost as we approach the November election. Almost everyone focuses on access to healthcare. But in some ways they are ignoring small businesses’ main concern, which is the cost component. Small-business owners almost uniformly pay attention to cost. When they make an investment, they want to see the value of that investment. When it comes to healthcare, they want government to fix it so that cost is the primary concern. How do you keep costs down? It’s a tough issue. There isn’t a silver bullet.
— John McDowell