Affordable health care is a top concern of small business owners, who say that health care cost is the primary issue confronting their businesses. More than one in three small business owners (36 percent) said that rising costs are likely to cause them to cut some portion of health insurance benefits for their employees, according to a survey released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The survey shows that small business owners believe that health benefits are a powerful inducement to retain good employees, saying that they struggle to keep up with unpredictable increases in the cost of offering insurance to their employees. Nearly half of small business owners (42 percent) in the survey said ‘making health care more affordable’ is the idea the Congress and new President should address first. More than three in four small business owners surveyed (78 percent) said they would support a reform package that combines government-sponsored purchasing pools to allow small businesses to purchase insurance at negotiated bulk rates, along with tax credits to make offering insurance more affordable for small businesses.