Bob Graham, Executive Editor

Small business owners are now more worried about the economy than providing health insurance for their employees, according to an article on IFAwebnews.com.

The news from a survey of small business owners conducted by the National Small Business Association cuts several ways, none of which are good for the insurance industry.

That health insurance isn’t the biggest concern would seem on the surface to be good news.

But that’s just not so, nor is it going to last long with the two Democratic presidential candidates constantly harping about the need to cover the uninsured.

But those concerns are secondary now to small business owners, including the majority of producers in the insurance industry, who themselves own or work within a small businesses. These agencies dot the countryside and are the bread and butter of the industry. Any economic slowdown or recession is sure to hurt them in their own offices, where plans for expansion, promotions, raises are potentially going to be jeopardized as much as in any other office this year.

They also suffer its effects when meeting with clients, many of whom are also small business owners. These owners face the same challenges as the agency owner: doing the same or more with less. As we have seen with other economic downturns, cuts will have to be made, and in some cases, small agencies will lose some business.

No other industry in the country probably experiences the impacts of economic changes in these two distinct ways more than a small insurance agency, and so news of concern for a worsening economy among small business owners is really bad news for the insurance industry.