Fair Pricing Act would lower hospital costs

Healthcare costs have increased at rates that are simply not sustainable for my small business. For many years, we paid 60% of the cost of whichever health insurance plan an employee selected. As premiums continue to rise, that model has become unaffordable. To continue offering our employees choice while maintaining a viable benefits program, we transitioned to a fixed employer contribution that employees can apply toward the plan that best meets their needs.

Additionally, healthcare costs have continued to increase much faster than our ability to increase wages. As a small business, every dollar spent on rising healthcare premiums is a dollar that cannot be invested in employee compensation, training, equipment or growth. The result is that employees effectively have less money available to them, either through higher healthcare expenses or through reduced opportunities for wage increases.

This is not a sustainable path for employers or employees, and it underscores the need to address the underlying drivers of healthcare cost inflation. That’s why I support the Fair Pricing Act to help lower rapidly rising hospital prices. It would create site-neutral policies so that hospitals couldn’t charge more for certain procedures than what a doctor’s office would. I urge New York policymakers to support this legislation to help create a more equitable and affordable healthcare system for small business owners and our employees.

Kris Fredricks is the owner of Control System Labs in Buffalo and is one of the 85,000 business owners in Small Business Majority's network.