Description

This special edition focuses exclusively on the latest developments regarding health care reform and the effects of current proposals on nonprofits

Despite the significant roles that nonprofits play in local communities and as partners to governments in delivering vital health, safety, education, and other services, public policymakers routinely overlook nonprofits. The most recent example has been the exclusion of nonprofit employers from health care reform.

Collectively, the nonprofit sector is quite large: 1.8 million nonprofits of all kinds employ more than 15.3 million people, which is more than the construction industry (7.2 million), the finance industry (5.2
million), the transportation industry (5.1 million), and the real estate industry (2.1 million) (2008 data). Nonprofits comprise about 10% of the civilian workforce and produce 11-12% of the GNP.

Individually, charitable nonprofits are quite small, however, with the vast majority (93.3%) having income of less than $1 million. Small nonprofit employers are like small for-profit businesses in many ways – we create local jobs, we meet local needs, and we pay higher market costs for items such as energy and health insurance premiums for our employees