As business owners attempted to control the costs of doing business, many found that insurance costs were uncontrollable. Horror stories cropped up concerning companies having to lay off employees to reduce premiums or to prevent the firm from going out of business.
An ACCA survey of members disclosed that, on average, contractors paid 61 percent more for employee health insurance premiums in 2002 than they did in 1999. In addition, ACCA reported that survey respondents typically spent 7.1 percent of their total operating expenses on health insurance premiums in 2002.