Most executives do not support health-care reform that increases government participation, according to a new survey conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

"Results from the survey are particularly interesting because the primary respondents are executives in small- and medium-sized business, a group that had been identified as potential beneficiaries of health-care reform," said Mark Lang, an accounting professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler. "While they identify health-care costs as a major concern, fears of a rising deficit and increased regulation appear to outweigh benefits of governmental involvement."

The AICPA-UNC Kenan-Flagler study found:

• Only 12 percent of CPA executives indicate that the government should be a major participant in health-care reform;
• 26 percent feel it should only be a limited participant; and
• 46 percent feel that governmental involvement should be reduced

Of respondents, 92 percent offer subsidized health care to employees and only 2 percent have considered dropping it, yet the majority support mandatory health-care coverage by employees. Most have been using some combination of increased employee contribution and reduced benefits to deal with rising health-care costs.

"Most executives appear to have found mechanisms for coping with rising health-care costs, and they view the potential downside of governmental involvement outweighs any benefits, particularly in these difficult economic times," Lang said. "Given that small and medium businesses are the likely drivers of the nascent economic recovery, their perspectives on healthcare reform seems particularly relevant to debate."

Lang is the Thomas W. Hudson, Jr./Deloitte and Touche L.L.P. Distinguished Professor of Accounting at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

The survey is part of the third quarter Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey, which was conducted via an online questionnaire from July 22-Aug. 9, 2009, and included 1,093 CPAs who hold leadership positions as chief executives, chief operating officers, chief financial officers or controllers. The overall margin of error was plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

More information and full poll results are available on the AICPA Financial Management Center Web site at http://fmcenter.aicpa.org/.

UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School is known for experiential learning in leadership and teamwork, superior teaching, innovative research and a collaborative culture. UNC Kenan-Flagler's commitment to developing socially responsible, results-driven leaders distinguishes its programs, which educate people at every stage of their careers. Its innovative programs prepare business leaders to manage successfully in the global business environment: the MBA, MBA for Executives (Evening, Weekend and OneMBA Global), Master of Accounting, undergraduate BSBA, PhD and Executive Development programs. UNC Kenan-Flagler is the only top business school with a unit that helps business and government tackle problems with impact on society; the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise has operations on the UNC campus and in Bangkok.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (http://www.aicpa.org/) is the national, professional association of CPAs, with more than 360,000 CPA members in business and industry, public practice, government, education, student affiliates, and international associates. It sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination. The AICPA publishes the Web site http://www.ifrs.com/ to inform members and the public about international accounting standards. The AICPA maintains offices in New York; Washington, D.C.; Durham, N.C.; Ewing, N.J.; and Lewisville, Texas.