This florist looks forward to a rosier future in health care costs.
Dennis runs a small business, Geier Florist, in West Peoria. In 2005 his wife Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer for which she received surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. At that time the couple’s annual deductible was $5,000 and their monthly premium $250. However, [...]

The Dill Pickle Food Co-op is a small, locally owned and operated cooperative, which offers local and organically grown foods.  For Vinnie Hernandez, the general manager, covering the co-op’s employees is a priority.  However, the experience of finding and establishing insurance for the co-op employees was bureaucratic and time consuming.  Vinnie had trouble finding adequate [...]

My name is Rich Godwin and I am an entrepreneur.  It is a challenge to open a business and provide health care for my employees, my family and myself.  The costs involved are outrageous. In five years, my family’s health care costs went from $500 a month to $800 to $1100 to $1600 to $2200.  [...]

Pattie provides needed services to breast cancer survivors.  Health care reform would allow more people to access these services and help boost her business.

Pattie Cagney Sheehan’s mother died of ovarian cancer in 2007.  “I watched her struggle to maintain her dignity while never losing her sense of self,” says Pattie.  Today Pattie is a Certified [...]

For Garry Apelian, family business owner of Apelian Rug, health care reform represents progress and hope. “You can’t rationalize not doing it anymore, even economically” says Garry.  Apelian Rug offers insurance to its seven employees, but their premiums increase by 20-30% each year.  Absorbing these cost increases is hard for both [...]