Small-business owners are increasingly concerned about rising health-care costs and are looking to government more and more to find legislative relief.

That's according to a new poll of small-business owners nationwide who say they simply can't afford to offer health insurance because revenues are too uncertain and many of their employees can't afford their share of the costs.

The poll, which was conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business, is based on a random survey of its members, 10,000 business owners.

A vast majority, 95 percent, said the most important issue facing their business is rising health-care costs, said William Dennis, chief economist for the trade group, which has an office in Columbus and headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"The average increases in health-care costs are running vastly higher than other costs, including the average increase in employee wages," Dennis said.

Employees say they're paying more for coverage, too.

Dennis, who is to testify today before the Ohio House Health Access and Affordability Committee, said higher health-care costs hurt small businesses disproportionately because of the growing costs of underwriting smaller employee groups.

Dennis wants legislators to support health-care alternatives, such health-savings accounts. These would "allow consumers to be more involved in their health care" and to use technology such as electronic health records to cut administrative costs.

"(Small-business) employers are worried about health-care costs, and legislators are worried about health-care coverage," Dennis said "But if legislators don't help employers reduce health-care costs, employers can't help legislators increase employee coverage."

While nearly 1.3 million Ohioans have no insurance, premiums for those who do are increasing.

One in four non-elderly adult Ohioans lacked coverage for all or part of the past two years, the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio says, and 80 percent of the uninsured are in working families.

"The primary response to rising health-care costs by business is to pass on the costs to employees," said Cathy Levine, executive director of the grassroots organization that promotes affordable heath care.

"With the larger deductible and co-pays, it's gotten so that people with health insurance are finding themselves with the same kind of medical debt that people without medical insurance are paying," she said.

"Rising health-care costs are crippling employers and employees, but the answer is not to shift the cost to employees."

Businesses are "paying more than our fair share," said Sherry Pymer, president of Pymer Plastering Inc. of the East Side. "We believe in taking care of our employees, but it's getting very expensive, considering that our health-care costs aren't going down."

The construction company spent $80,000 on health premiums for its 10 employees last year, a 17 percent increase from the previous year.

The company switched health plans this year to one with a higher employee deductible and co-pay but the same coverage. So the cost of premiums rose only 6 percent, Pymer said.

"It's a lot of money, especially for a business as small as ours," she said. "We have a good policy because we want to continue to give our employees the benefits, but this year we had to find a way to save and lower costs somehow."

Other employers have turned to health-savings plans to manage rising costs. The 401(k)-type accounts allow employees to build tax-free funds they can use for medical expenses or retirement after age 65.

Ohio Transmission Corp. offered the choice of a health-savings plan instead of traditional coverage to its 300 employees last year. After 60 percent volunteered to join, the company made the switch this year.

"We're not looking to drive up profits on savings from health-care costs," said Philip Derrow, who owns the industrial distributor company. "The advantage to this plan is better health-care coverage, lower premium costs, and we're able to remain competitive in the employment marketplace because we offer better benefits.

"When individuals are financially involved in their health care, they make better health-care decisions that are more economically sound."

tturner@dispatch.com