Poll: Businesses want healthcare reform

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Some people may not want healthcare reform, but a survey of U.S. businesses indicates rising healthcare costs are their single, biggest concern.

The poll, conducted by Anzalone Liszt Research in advance of President Barack Obama's address to Congress last week, says nearly 90 percent of the executives cite healthcare costs as a major concern, more than taxes, government regulation, labor costs or energy costs.

Without reform, 86 percent say healthcare costs will continue to rise in the next five years, and 55 percent say it will go up "a lot."

If healthcare cost go up, nearly nine out of 10 business leaders expect to raise their employees' deductibles and co-payments, eight out of 10 expect to cut benefits and nearly one in three expect to lay off employees, the polls says.

"Year after year, business leaders have watched healthcare costs consume a larger part of their budgets and our economy and they want action," Jim Doyle, Business Forward executive director says in a statement.

Seventy-eight percent of those polled say they favor insurance exchange, 71 percent want efficiency reforms and an oversight commission, 79 percent say they want insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and 51 percent favor a public health option.

The telephone poll, conducted Aug. 19-Sept. 1, has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.