Small businesses are often at a disadvantage when shopping for health insurance.
Capitol Hill Republicans are pushing legislation aimed at further assisting these small-firm alliances. Since 53 percent of American workers are employed by firms with fewer than 500 employees, encouraging the pooling concept through legislative reforms could result in greatly expanded coverage, proponents point out. At large corporations employing 10,000 or more workers, only about 5.5 percent of health insurance premiums go to administrative costs. But that figure rises to 40 percent at firms with only one to four workers.