ABLE Supports Obama's Healthcare Reform Plan

Aug. 4, 2009 - PRLog -- (CHICAGO, IL): Ninety percent of leading African-American CEOs belonging to the Alliance of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs (ABLE) say they support the Obama Administration’s plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system. Eighty percent of those surveyed said they felt the administration’s plan would help small businesses with their health care expenses.

The survey was exclusively distributed to ABLE’s members in early July. The average ABLE member has been in business over a decade and provides products and services to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. President Obama is committed to promoting and enacting a Healthcare Reform Plan that will provide high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.  

The current health care system is putting a significant strain on many business owners, including the majority of ABLE members. The number of full time employees at the survey participants’ companies ranged from 4 to 1,428.  Of survey participants, 85 percent offer health insurance to their employees, and the same percentage says that the rising cost of health care is having an adverse impact on their businesses. Just how their businesses are being adversely impacted includes firing existing employees and deciding not to hire new workers.

The survey also discovered that:

•  Half of those surveyed say they have required employees to pay for a greater percentage of benefits to offset rising health care costs.
•  Thirty percent of survey participants say they reduced the level of health care benefits or eliminated them completely because of cost.

It is clear that a public health insurance option is absolutely necessary in order to cover the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured.  ABLE strongly supports President Obama’s efforts to honor his campaign commitment to provide high quality, affordable health care to all Americans through the proposed health care reform plan.

About ABLE: The Alliance of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs was founded in 1992 and is comprised of a select group of leading African American CEOs in the city of Chicago, representing a wide range of business enterprises. ABLE provides proactive mentoring and outreach, individually and collectively, to the men and women who represent the next generation of African-American entrepreneurs. ABLE also offers a unified force and resource in terms of views and collective influence of African-American business owners within local, regional and national markets and bodies of government. For more information about ABLE, visit www.ablechicago.com. To connect with an ABLE member call Executive Director Donna Gaines at (312) 624-7733.

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The Alliance of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs was founded in 1992 and is comprised of a select group of leading African American CEOs in the city of Chicago, representing a wide range of business enterprises.