José Cárdenas: As the cost the healthcare rises, many feel those increases in their pockets and small business is wrestling whether or not to continue to offer the benefit. We'll hear from an organization promoting the success of small businesses. But first, how they're dealing with rising healthcare costs.

>> The rising cost of healthcare insurance hits the wallets of many people. Including business owners who make health insurance available to their employees.

Howard Stuart: Our insurance rates since I took over in the year 2000, have increased 11% per year on average.

>> He runs AGM container controls, a Tucson-based company that manufactures items for the military and lifts for the handicapped.

Howard Stuart: Our insurance rates have increased an average of 11%. I find that pretty interesting because my wages and salaries for our company have probably increased at the rate of 3.5-4% during that same period.

>> AGM has 104 employee, all of whom are eligible for the company health plan. That includes families and brings about a predicament.

Howard Stuart: The nicer I make my benefit, the more likely that the spouses of my employees are going to insure through me instead of through their -- through the business that they're a part of or the organization they're a part of. So I began to realize I couldn't give the best insurance benefit without paying that price of getting everybody's family members on my policy. So what we've ended up doing is we've tried to come up with policy amounts that -- in terms of personals, that help the employee, but will not attract the employee's spouse to come on to our plan.

>> On the other side of Tucson is net trio and computer bits. With 45 employees. The company has always paid 100% of the health insurance costs for those who work there. But this year, premiums went up by 13%.

Cristie Street: We took a look and analyzed the numbers and for us, the difference in premium ended up being essentially the total of a head count. So it was more than $24,000. In the first year. And we saw that going up in the future.

>> The rate increase put the company at a crossroads when it comes to health insurance. Some managers turns to employees with the options.

Cristie Street: Do we continue to offer 100% paid for in health insurance for the employees, do we cut back on the type plan or change it and try to lower our company premiums but then push the burden of the cost of healthcare more on the employees, or do we raise our rates? Pass through those charges to our customers? And because we're a business-to-business organization, we felt like that was probably the least possible option in the current economy.

>> The other option was to fire someone, so they could continue to offer the rest of the company the same benefit plan. The manager said that really wasn't doing in their minds, so in the end, after talking with employees, they reduced the plan's coverage. Though the company still pays for everyone.

Cristie Street: We ratcheted it down so that the base plan is a little lesser. It's an 80/20 plan, a little bit higher out of pocket maximum for the staff and there's the option to upgrade. So the employees, if they want it actually go back to the Cadillac plan can pay the difference. But I'll pay for the base plan, 100% of the cost.

>> You may ask, why if prices are climbing, do small businesses continue to offer health insurance?

Howard Stuart: It helps you to attract and retain employees. So chances are, the companies that are not providing insurance, the quality of employee they can attract and retain is going to be lower than what I can do -- you know, with my company.

>> And the economics of healthcare is important to more than just the bottom line of the companies involved.

Cristie Street: What I'm trying to avoid as far as to have to make the decision between taking care of a health issue, and -- and, you know, putting groceries on the table or putting their shoes on their children for school. Any time that staff have to have that kind of conversation with their family or, you know, in their own head, affects work, whether it's directly or not. It definitely carries over into their performance every day. And translates into longer sick days because they've perpetuated a problem that probably could have been nipped in the bud.

>> When both companies were faced with increases rates, they shopped around and were able to bring the costs into line with what they can afford -- this year.

José Cárdenas: Joining me to talk about small businesses and healthcare reform is Armando Contreras, president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic chamber of commerce. Welcome to "Horizonte."

Armando Contreras: Thank you.

José Cárdenas: The chamber is not new to our show. Periodically we've had representative, including your predecessor to talk about what's going on. Before we delve into the healthcare issue, give us an update on what's going on at the chamber.

Armando Contreras: Thank you for having me on the show. I've been with the chamber five months, and my priority coming into the chamber was to build internal capacity and make sure we have the tools and the resources to better serve our membership. Second, I started looking at the programs and services that we offer our members and I'm enhancing that at this point. We're looking to bring in an empowerment series for small businesses, we're going to be partnering with ASU, university of Phoenix, Phoenix college, in order to provide services and resources and workshops, credit and non-credit sessions for our small business members, both English and in Spanish.

José Cárdenas: Has the turndown in the economy affected the membership levels in the organization?

Armando Contreras: I think somewhat. It has been a challenge for us, regarding retention. But at the same time, I think it's timely that members and new members begin to join the chamber because we want to be that resource for sustainability. So during these economic times, that they come to the Arizona Hispanic chamber of commerce to look for those tools and look for those resources that are going to help them sustain during these times of economic downturn.

José Cárdenas: The video package we saw focused on small businesses generally. Are the members of the Arizona Hispanic chamber facing those same issues in terms of affordability of healthcare insurance?

Armando Contreras: I think it's always been an issue. The same with Latino businesses. There's not a kinds of there. What we do know is that of the ethnic groups in nationwide, Latinos are the one that have a higher percentage of those who are not insured. So definitely it's of concern to the chamber.

José Cárdenas: What's the size -- I should have asked you this before. The Hispanic community as far as the small business community at large?

Armando Contreras: The Hispanic business community here in Arizona, the small businesses is about 35,000. As a whole, small businesses in Arizona are approximately about 400,000. In Arizona -- I'm sorry, in Phoenix, you have about 9,000 Hispanic businesses.

José Cárdenas: And with respect to the benefits in the chamber as it relates to health insurance, there are plans that your members have available because of their membership, right?

Armando Contreras: We do. If you become a member of the chamber, we are partnering with HUMANA. They provide a discount. We are also looking into providing several other insurance options for our members. So we will be in conversation with HUMANA and others to provide a comprehensive package for our members.

José Cárdenas: Let's talk about healthcare reform. Positions that either your chamber or the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has taken with respect to what's going on.

Armando Contreras: Specifically with our chamber, we're for healthcare reform. Definitely there has to be affordability. For our members. They, too, are beginning to make choices that are very difficult for the businesses, either not offering healthcare insurance for their employees, not offering, maybe healthcare for themselves. As maybe a mom and pop shop. Obviously, there's a danger in that. There are healthcare risk the involved. Especially with children. Today with the H1N1 flu virus. There's definitely a concern. If they're not -- if though don't get the proper medical care, that could also spread. The pandemic can become much bigger. Maybe exponentially as it is today.

José Cárdenas: What do you see as the principle component of healthcare reform? What has to happen to make Hispanic businesses more successful in this regard?

Armando Contreras: I think access to affordable healthcare. It has to be affordable. That's number one of number two, with the United States himself chamber of commerce is looking at is more of an inclusivity. To be part of the healthcare reform package.

José Cárdenas: You're talking about not only people that have legal residence status, but people who are undocumented, am I right?

Armando Contreras: Those that are undocumented, be it one agrees or not agrees that they're here legally, there is a healthcare risk for them. If they don't get the proper care. And that affects not only the immigrant community but all communities above and beyond the Hispanic community. So we should look at solutions to find a way to also care for the non-citizens.

José Cárdenas: So in this regard, though, the chambers would find themselves at odds with the Obama administration which has repeatedly emphasized their proposals will not provide healthcare benefits to those here illegally.

Armando Contreras: According to the white paper presented by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, I believe that would be true. In regard to the Hispanic -- the Arizona Hispanic chamber of commerce, we're looking for solutions for our members and having a comprehensive healthcare package for them where they can access affordable healthcare, that would be a priority for us here in Arizona.

José Cárdenas: And is it a priority because as you indicated, it makes sense for everybody's well-being that you have children, whether their status is here as a legal resident or not, to be vaccinated and have healthy people not spreading diseases or stuff like that, but what about the -- that we shouldn't provide benefits to people who are not here legally?

Armando Contreras: If we begin to do that, we're all at risk because the people that are here, either legal or non-legal, they -- their children still go to the schools. Their workers still go to businesses, be it Hispanic or not Hispanic businesses.

José Cárdenas: So it's something we need to do for everyone's benefit.

Armando Contreras: Absolutely.

José Cárdenas: On that note, we have to end our interview. But Armando, thank you for joining us and best wishes for your new position.

Armando Contreras: Thank you, it's been a pleasure.

José Cárdenas: Welcome to "Horizonte." And thank you for joining us. The association of fund-raising professionals known as AFP. The greater Arizona organization chapter hosted a -- learning about the Hispanic organizations across the country. Joining me with more on this topic is Mark Walker, from Make A Wish International.

Mark Walker: Thank you, Jose.

José Cárdenas: We're talking about not just philanthropy, but given your resume, it's an international focus as well.

Mark Walker: Definitely. Philanthropy and AFP are very global. Having 30,000 members in over 200 countries around the world and philanthropy takes different shapes and sizes in each country. That's part of the work I do at make a wish. We have 34 affiliates around the world. Every country is different and you have to be sensitive the history and what they do well and what isn't working. And it depends on the culture, that's impacted by history as well.

José Cárdenas: And differences in tax laws, I think observers have noted there's greater giving in the United States than there is, for example, in Europe because of our tax code.

Mark Walker: If you look at fund-raising globally, Netherlands has the -- Netherlands has the largest not-for-profit sector based on the employees that come out of that. Then you have the Scandinavians and Europeans and the United States is somewhere in the middle. And Latin America is toward the bottom. And then at the very bottom of the list is Mexico. Which has the smallest third sector. So there's different countries have different levels of involvement. Different of levels of sophistication and part of the things we try to do at AFP is work with the professionals in these countries in developing their capacity to do a more effective job.

José Cárdenas: Given what you said about the differences there, how do the lessons the learned there have any particular relevance to here, Hispanics and philanthropy. I want to talk about the conference you did this week. But what is it that people here can learn about those differences?

Mark Walker: I think culture has an impact on the way people raise money. How they perceive philanthropy. And because of that, AFP sponsors a coverage, the coverage for fundraising and bring in over 450 professionals from throughout the United States, as well as Latin America, to learn more about fund-raising and enhance their capabilities. In Latin America, the majority of the money developed from philanthropy are through fees and historically, since the church and state have taken care of many of the needs, many have depended on the state and church and haven't develop what had we would consider the third sector. In Mexico, they have the smallest third sector and depended on the fees and state and church. Now they need to begin to develop and they're in the process of developing, broadening their capabilities to generate more money from individuals and other forms of private fundraising. And as we were talking before, now that they have the wealthiest individual in the world, who gives away $45 million a year, there's a whole opportunity, a new vision and attitude about philanthropy in Mexico. We can learn from them and they can learn from us, and one of things we try to do at AFP is promote a better understanding and interchange of information and how philanthropy takes -- the different ways it works out in different parts of the world.

José Cárdenas: We want to talk about that, but one issue I would think impacts philanthropy around the world is the state of the economy. What can you tell us about that?

Mark Walker: This has been one of the horrendous situations for the not for profit organizations in I think in my lifetime, at least. And most of the organizations are taking a fairly good hit and they are looking at decreased amount of resources coming in. Now, some of the organizations that meet the immediate needs of individuals, some of the food banks and groups that are meeting immediate needs, they've been getting some fairly good response rates, but other organization, especially the arts and certainly education have seen a decrease of 10-15%. So we're all happy to see the economy starting to turn around and hopefully that will have an impact. But one of the problems or one of the challenges is that organizations tend to pull back when they see the economy pull down and unfortunately, they pull back in the area of fund-raising and this is definitely not the time to pull back. This is the time to be more upfront and as a matter of fact, the organizations that have long-term donors, committed donors, those are the ones who will usually step up and give to less organizations but more to the organizations they're committed and engaged in. Our challenge is to look for ways to engage and involve our donors and appreciate the donors we have and ask them to help us through the difficult times.

José Cárdenas: Is that part of the message you delivered at the conference this week?

Mark Walker: It was one of the messages along with the fact we need to be sensitive to the nuances and differences in the Hispanic culture, the Latin American culture and how we need to adapt our strategies for that as well.

José Cárdenas: I think we have a picture of your keynote speaker on the screen. Before we talk about his presentation, tell us about this event. How it came to be?

Mark Walker: This is a three-year commitment of AFP to promote across border, across cultural appreciation and understanding and promotion of philanthropy. We've been involved with the hemispheric conference. And we've provided support and education and scholarships and we've provided scholarships for other individuals to go as well. So we're pleased with that and that's been important -- you know, our international focus has been important and this event here -- that we had today was just part of that process of promoting more understanding and cross cultural appreciation and skill building and exchange of information.

José Cárdenas: And what did they learn from Mr. Montoya who was successful in Denver and came here to share his experiences?

Mark Walker: We think it's important to bring in individuals from the outside who have been successful. Montoya is a successful businessman and he's a chairman of the board and talked about the Rhodes foundation and several corporations to develop 18 large Hispanic individual donors who gave $25,000 apiece to set up the Latino community foundation. Among organizations that support the Hispanic community and obviously, they're developing a capability to develop strategic partnerships and capabilities to raise larger gifts and we thought it important to share their story and hopefully look at ways to do similar -- develop similar strategies here in Phoenix.

José Cárdenas: You had a fairly distinguished panel that was part of the presentation at the conference. Was there discussion about the lessons that might be applicable here, taken from Denver that might be applicable to fund-raising in the Hispanic community here?

Mark Walker: We had a prestigious group of panelists. And they talked about Latina giving circles and we had one who talked about setting up the art center here and they all provided insights on what they learned and what they have learned. We think it's important not only to bring people from the outside to talk about successes, but also bring local Hispanic leaders to talk about best practices so we can build on successes that we already have here in the valley.

José Cárdenas: And what's the assessment, either theirs or yours or both, of the state of Hispanic philanthropy in Arizona?

Mark Walker: A couple of things. In general, Hispanics give a lot. They're very giving people. But most of the giving through the Hispanic community is an informal sector. Not structured. So we can't measure it as easily as we can with the other formal traditional fund-raising activities.

José Cárdenas: Would that be taking care of family?

Mark Walker: Exactly. The spend extended family, if you have a problem, you take care the family first. And if there are other problems, the church comes in and other problems, the state takes care of. There's similarities about the attitudes about philanthropies in Mexico and Latin America and here.

José Cárdenas: In terms of this coverage, this is the third year, I think you've done it --

Mark Walker: Right.

José Cárdenas: -- it will continue -- where do you expect it to go?

Mark Walker: We're right on the border with Mexico. We should have a cross cultural session in which we bring some of the AFP collaborators from the chapters in Mexico and have a broader discussion how culture impacts giving there and here. What we do similarly and what we need to learn from one another.

José Cárdenas: Mark Walker, Make A Wish Organization, thank you for joining us.

Mark Walker: Thank you.