{"id":380044,"date":"2026-07-20T20:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T20:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380044\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T20:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T20:53:07","slug":"new-nfib-report-texas-small-businesses-report-insurance-challenges-five-points-worse-than-national-average","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380044\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW NFIB REPORT: Texas Small Businesses Report Insurance Challenges Five Points Worse Than National Average"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, TX (July 20,\u00a02026)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0A new Texas Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) report, produced by the\u00a0National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Research Center\u00a0and released today, highlights responses from Texas small business owners on a variety of issues compared to national averages from the NFIB\u2019s monthly SBET surveys throughout the year. In the latest data, the cost or availability of insurance was five points worse in Texas than the national average.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question that Texas is the best state in the union to own and operate a small business,\u201d said\u00a0Jeff Burdett,\u00a0NFIB\u2019s State Director for Texas. \u201cBut that is not without challenges. In this survey, the cost or availability of insurance was a bigger challenge for Texas small business owners than the rest of the country. This is a crisis for Main Street. We will continue advocating for solutions that lower health costs and expand affordable coverage options.\u201d<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE<\/a> to view the survey. Highlights are below:<\/p>\n

Single Most Important Problem<\/p>\n

Compared to the U.S. overall, Texas small businesses have one problem\u00a0that stands out as the most challenging problem: insurance. Nearly fifteen (14.8) percent of owners in Texas reported that the cost or availability of insurance as their\u00a0single most important problem\u00a0for winter\u00a02026, compared to the national average of 9.9%.<\/p>\n

Conversely, Texas outperforms the rest of the country when it comes to government regulation, with an average of 5% of Texas small businesses reporting\u00a0it as their single most important problem compared to an average of 8% nationwide.<\/p>\n

Optimism Index<\/p>\n

The Small Business Optimism Index\u00a0for Texas\u00a0small businesses\u00a0in\u00a0winter\u00a0(Oct. 2025-Mar. 2026)\u00a0was 101.7,\u00a0which was\u00a02.2 points ahead of the national average.\u00a0Of the 10 components that make up the\u00a0Index,\u00a0small businesses in Texas\u00a0reported higher sales expectations, as well as positive economic expectations and the two inventory categories, compared to\u00a0NFIB\u2019s\u00a0overall\u00a0U.S. data.<\/p>\n

Business Health<\/p>\n

When asked to evaluate the overall health of their business,\u00a0Texas\u00a0small business owners reported that they are performing a bit worse than the rest of the country.\u00a0In Texas, 12% of owners rated the health of their business as excellent (unchanged from the national average), 49% rated it as good (four points below the national average of 53%),\u00a035% rated it fair (five points up from the national average of 30%), and\u00a04% rated it poor (unchanged from the national average).<\/p>\n

The data for this report is sourced from\u00a0NFIB\u2019s\u00a0Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) Survey<\/a>. The NFIB Research Center has collected SBET data, polled from a random sample of NFIB members,\u00a0with quarterly surveys since the fourth quarter of 1973 and monthly surveys since 1986.\u00a0To create this new state-specific report, we pooled data from multiple surveys\u00a0into a weighted average for a given season (Apr-Sep for summer and Oct-Mar for winter).\u00a0This report analyzes data from Texas respondents from\u00a0winter 2026.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

NFIB is advocating for policy solutions in Austin and in Washington, D.C. that empower small business owners with more choice and control over their healthcare decisions, and lower health costs while expanding affordable coverage options.<\/p>\n

What can you do to help?\u00a0Share your healthcare story with us. Elected officials are influenced by real-life stories. You have the power to make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TX (July 20,\u00a02026)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0A new Texas Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) report, produced by the\u00a0National Federation of Independent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-380044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}