Many people worry about the cost of their own healthcare, but local business owners also worry about their employees.

“I can’t afford to offer healthcare to my coworkers,” said Faiga Brussel, owner of Good Cheap Food in Delhi. “Years ago, I tried, and quickly ran into a brick wall of financial disaster and had to backtrack. Now it is so much worse.”

Health coverage is particularly important for local farmers, well aware of their work’s physical dangers (https://goo.gl/hGXYKT).

“The occupation itself is an injury to your body,” said Eleanor Blakeslee-Drain, who owns Berry Brook Farm in Delancey. “So health insurance is a must for us.” Blakeslee-Drain, her husband, and two sons will lose Medicaid this year, because their vegetable farm now makes enough money that they no longer qualify.

“We used to joke that since giant agribusiness gets massive government subsidies to not grow corn, Medicaid was our small farm's subsidy. But without Medicaid, I'm worried that our options will either be expensive or not very good coverage."

Read the full article at the New Franklin Register here.