MAKE THE ROAD NEW YORK

June 2, 2009

Queens Cafe Owner to House Small Business Committee: “We’re Ready to Serve”

Contact: Contact: Sara Cullinane 917-676-3210

Washington, DC — On Wednesday afternoon, New York small business owner Freddy Castiblanco will testify in the House Small Business Committee’s hearing on “Common Ground: Finding Consensus on Health Reform, the Small Business Perspective.” Castiblanco, an immigrant from Colombia and owner of La Terraza Café in the Jackson Heights/Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, will testify on behalf of New York’s Small Business United for Health Care coalition – group spearheaded by Make the Road New York – and on behalf of the national Main Street Alliance network.

“We’re all paying the cost of our broken health care system – in unaffordable premiums for those who still have coverage, and in lost employees, lower productivity and financial insecurity for those who don’t,” Castiblanco said. “I’ve lost some of my most talented employees because I couldn’t provide health insurance.”

Castiblanco has owned his business in Jackson Heights for eight years since immigrating to this country from his native Colombia, where he practiced as a physician. He started it in an abandoned storefront, and has built La Terraza into a vibrant business with 11 employees. But affordable health coverage remains out of reach. “As my business grew, I wanted to find health coverage for my employees and their families. My hope was crushed when I consulted a broker and found the premium for a decent benefits package would be over $700 a month… for each employee. This would make health care the largest expense for my business after wages – over eighteen percent of my payroll – outweighing rent and any other operating expense.”

As an employer, Castiblanco says he’s willing to pay his fair share for good coverage for his employees. “Ask small businesses, do we want good health insurance for our workers? Yes, we do,” Castiblanco said. “Do we feel a responsibility to help our employees afford health care? Yes, we do. Are we willing to contribute? Yes.” The Main Street Alliance’s Taking the Pulse of Main Street report, based on a national survey of 1,200 small business owners, found 73 percent of small employers willing to contribute for health coverage for their employees.

But small businesses need more choices, Castiblanco says, and he supports giving businesses the choice of a public health insurance plan as part of broader reform. “Let small business owners decide what works for us: to keep what we’ve got if it’s working, or choose something new – including a public plan – if we have no good options. This will give us greater bargaining power and encourage competition among insurers to make coverage affordable.”

As key committees in the House and Senate begin to wrestle with issues of how to make health coverage affordable, how to provide more choices, and how to pay for reform, Castiblanco believes a reasonable compromise is within reach. “Give us more choices, including a public health insurance option to ignite competition, drive down costs and make good coverage affordable, and you will find small business owners on main streets across America not only willing to contribute, but ready to serve.”

Small Business United for Health Care is a project of Make the Road New York www.maketheroadny.org and affiliated with the Main Street Alliance — a national network of small business coalitions in a dozen states working with small business owners advance health care that works for small businesses, our employees and the economy.

www.mainstreetalliance.org