As the national debate continues on health care reform, AADO encourages the inclusion of not-for-profit organizations and their employees in the discussion. The health reform bill to be passed should include meaningful support to help not for profits provide health care benefits to employees for the following reasons:

# Congress should ensure that health care legislation includes subsidies to help nonprofit employers provide health insurance for their employees. Tax credits for small employers that provide health insurance for employees won’t help tax-exempt organizations.
# Together, nonprofits employ nearly 14 million individuals — almost 10 percent of the U.S. workforce — who are integral to the vital services these organizations provide to communities throughout the nation.
# Individually, the vast majority of nonprofits are small businesses, employing 50 or fewer workers, and like our for-profit counterparts, we generally don’t have access to the range of health insurance choices available to larger businesses.
# Nonprofits are facing rising demands for our services with fewer private contributions and government resources to help meet that demand. Without assistance, most small nonprofits will be forced to cut staff, cut benefits, and cut programs.