* Tax credits provided to small businesses offering health insurance to their workers would help further offset premium costs for businesses that choose to offer coverage to their employees. The tax credits would vary depending on size of the firm, the average wage, and the percent of the premium that the employer pays.

* Premium subsidies to purchase coverage through the health insurance exchange and higher income eligibility limits in Medicaid would help those small firm low-wage workers who do not have access to health benefits through their jobs.

"Small businesses and their employees have a great deal to gain from the health reform proposals under discussion in Congress," said Sara Collins report co-author and Commonwealth Fund Vice President for Affordable Health Insurance. "The reforms have the potential to increase both the affordability and comprehensiveness of health insurance available to small businesses and individuals by protecting them from underwriting on the basis of health, establishing new standards for health benefits, and lowering their premium costs."

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation supporting independent research on health policy reform and a high performance health system.

Methodology:
The findings in this report come from The Commonwealth Fund's 2007 Biennial Health Insurance Survey. The Commonwealth Fund 2007 Biennial Health Insurance Survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from June 6, 2007, through October 24, 2007. The survey consisted of 25-minute telephone interviews in either English or Spanish and was conducted among a random, nationally representative sample of 3,501 adults age 19 and older living in the continental United States. The analysis in this issue brief is based on the 1,716 respondents ages 19 to 64 who were either full-time or part-time workers. Statistical results are weighted to correct for the disproportionate sample design and to make the final total sample results representative of all adults age 19 and older living in the continental United States. The data are weighted to the U.S. adult population by age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, household size, geographic region, and telephone service interruption, using the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. The resulting weighted sample is representative of the approximately 122 million workers ages 19 to 64. Mary Mahon