Health Care Costs Major Concern For Farmers
Both large and small-scale farmers say that the cost of health insurance is their top business concern, according to a new report issued by Ohio State University’s Social Responsibility Initiative. The findings come from a larger study, “Agricultural Adaptation at the Rural-Urban Interface: Can Communities Make a Difference?” led by researchers at Ohio State and Utah State University.
Researchers analyzed surveys from 453 farmers from eight counties, in six states. All operate in areas known as the “Rural-Urban Interface”, or rural land situated near increasingly urbanized areas.
Key Findings Of The Research Include:
- Health insurance is identified as a very serious issue for the majority of the farmers surveyed, including 65% of commercial farmers (those who grow commodity and/or specialty crops) and 40% for the rural resident farmer (those who often do not rely on the farm as their main source of income). Still, even for rural residential farmers, the cost of health insurance tied with the cost of farmland as their top concern.
- The cost of health insurance not only is a concern for protecting the farm family, but, like many small businesses, it limits the number of full-time employees a farm can employ, thereby limiting the ability of the farm enterprise to grow to its full potential.
- To access affordable family health care, a farm operator or spouse often seeks benefits through an off-farm job, thereby limiting the time these families can devote to the farm and grow their business.
An additional study from the USDA’s Economic Research Service, “Health Care Access of Farm and Rural Populations” supports the survey’s findings.
The USDA study found that farm operator households spend more on health care than other U.S. households, spending an average $5,200 to $10,000 a year for health coverage. The amount spent on health care makes it a top issue for farmers, and the solution to the problem, according to those surveyed, wasn’t found in government-run health care.