Opinion: Texas Businesses to Lawmakers
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Texas Businesses to Lawmakers: Don’t Add to Employer Healthcare Costs
As Texas continues to lead the nation in economic growth, the mounting challenge of rising healthcare costs threatens to undermine our success. For businesses across the Lone Star State, providing competitive healthcare benefits is both a matter of employee satisfaction and a cornerstone of our economic stability. Healthcare costs remain a top concern for the state’s businesses, and government mandates toward employer-sponsored healthcare benefits present a significant challenge to maintaining competitiveness and supporting employees.
The Texas Association of Business (TAB) conducted the 2024 Texas Employers Healthcare Survey, gathering comprehensive insights into these challenges through over 200 responses from individual businesses across the state, collected via TAB’s members and chamber partners. The survey results offers a stark warning: without decisive legislative action, these escalating costs could jeopardize the state’s economic engine and constrain Texas businesses’ capacities for growth and employment, adversely raising prices for their goods and services. Lawmakers must act to shield employers from unsustainable financial pressures and ensure that healthcare remains an asset, not a liability, for Texas businesses.
According to the survey:
- 85% of Texas employers believe that healthcare costs are increasing at an unsustainable rate.
- 34% of respondents believe that healthcare benefits have become the fastest-growing expense in their business, surpassing even wages.
- 51% of surveyed employers say these escalating costs have directly interfered with their ability to raise salaries or hire new employees
More than half of respondents also concluded that government regulation of healthcare coverage is the cause of increased healthcare costs and oppose the introduction of any new state mandates that would further increase this cost.
This year’s Survey reflects many of the same – if not increased – concerns of the Texas legislature on the rising cost of healthcare for businesses from TAB’s 2022 Healthcare Survey. Our businesses’ concerns are not new.
For many Texas businesses, these costs are more than just numbers; they represent tangible barriers to growth, workforce investment, and the moral commitment to provide for their employees.
In Texas, where employer-provided health coverage insures roughly 14 million people, healthcare benefits are integral to attracting and retaining top talent. Over 75% of survey respondents identified health benefits as a crucial factor in workforce retention, with 36% ranking it as the most important benefit offered.
Yet, the rising cost of premiums – the primary reason 75% of businesses do not offer insurance – threatens employers’ ability to provide these healthcare benefits. These findings highlight the significant financial burden that rising healthcare costs impose on employers, often forcing them to reevaluate their ability to provide essential benefits.
The survey uncovers the growing opposition among Texas businesses to new state-imposed mandates that could further increase the cost of employer-sponsored healthcare benefits. More than 57% of respondents strongly oppose additional state regulations and more than 90% of employers support requiring cost estimates for any legislative proposal affecting health benefits. Texas businesses are calling for more transparency and accountability in policymaking.
We must not be complacent with policies that, in totality, infringe on the freedom and free enterprise that allows Texas to maintain a competitive and expansive economy.
Texas employers make clear that they want the Legislature to address the root causes of rising healthcare costs, not to pile on additional burdens. Specific solutions identified in the survey include:
- Transparency: 76% of respondents advocate for requiring healthcare providers to disclose their prices publicly.
- Flexibility: 73% want the option to purchase more affordable insurance plans without state-imposed mandates exceeding federal requirements.
Texas’ economic vitality depends on sensible healthcare policies that prioritize transparency and flexibility. Lawmakers must resist the temptation to impose additional mandates on employer-sponsored healthcare benefits. Instead, they should address the underlying issues driving up costs to ensure that Texas remains a place where businesses thrive, and where employees are protected.
To read more about the findings from TAB’s 2024 Texas Employers Healthcare Survey, please click here.
Glenn Hamer, President & CEO, Texas Association of Business
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TXBIZNEWS
New Report: 60% of Small Businesses Use AI, Eye Cryptocurrency
On August 18, 2025, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published the fourth edition of Empowering Small Business: The Impact of Technology on U.S. Small Business found that nearly 60% of small businesses use AI.
The Details:
- The report shows 58% of small businesses use generative AI, up from 40% in 2024 and double 2023’s rate, with 96% planning to adopt emerging technologies like AI and cryptocurrencies.
- 77% of AI-using businesses say limits on the technology would hurt growth and operations, while 82% reported workforce increases last year.
- Jordan Crenshaw, Senior Vice President of the Chamber’s Technology Engagement Center, said, “A fragmented regulatory landscape will significantly hinder their ability to compete… policymakers need a single national framework.”
- Hrag Kalebjian of Henry’s House of Coffee noted, “AI has been a game-changer… streamlining tasks like product descriptions and marketing emails.”
- The study also found 70% of small business owners are interested in cryptocurrency and stablecoins.
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Texas Political Spotlight
Welcome back, friends
The Texas House approved SB 12, a bill that would expand Attorney General Ken Paxton’s authority to prosecute election crimes. In other news, the San Antonio City Council narrowly backed a $489 million city commitment toward a new $1.3 billion Spurs development, including a new arena, despite calls for more independent analysis, framing the project as the centerpiece of a downtown sports and entertainment district. Lastly, former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores announced she will run again in Texas’ 34th Congressional District under newly redrawn maps, setting up a 2026 rematch with Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in one of the state’s most competitive seats.
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Texas Political Spotlight
Welcome back, friends
Texas politics is in flux as Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the state’s longest-serving congressman, says he won’t seek reelection under a new GOP-drawn map. At the same time, lawmakers are rushing to respond to the deadly Hill Country floods with hundreds of millions in aid and private donations. And in the GOP, the race for attorney general is shaping up into a high-stakes fight between allies of Ken Paxton and Ted Cruz.
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