The Council of Smaller Enterprises, known as COSE, is a division of the Greater Cleveland Partnership and an organization that coordinates the activities of and provides resources and advocacy for small businesses in the Greater Cleveland area. It is the largest regional small business group in the United States. [1]
Small businesses are privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships that have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to apply for government support and qualify for preferential tax policy varies depending on the country and industry. Small businesses range from fifteen employees under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, fifty employees according to the definition used by the European Union, and fewer than five hundred employees to qualify for many U.S. Small Business Administration programs. While small businesses can also be classified according to other methods, such as annual revenues, shipments, sales, assets, or by annual gross or net revenue or net profits, the number of employees is one of the most widely used measures.
The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to 2018 United States Census estimates, the five-county Cleveland–Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of Cuyahoga County, Geauga County, Lake County, Lorain County, and Medina County, and has a population of 2,057,009 making Greater Cleveland the 33rd most populous metropolitan area in the United States, the third largest metro area in Ohio, and the second largest metro area, behind Columbus, entirely in Ohio. Greater Cleveland is part of the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area and the Great Lakes Megalopolis.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.
In 1991, John Polk, the head of the organization at the time, spoke out against mandates for employers to provide health insurance, arguing that such mandates hurt small employers since those businesses were least able to afford health insurance. [2] In 2005, the organization was advocating for health care reform at the national level, particularly focusing on reform oriented towards reducing health care costs. [3]
COSE offers energy solutions[ buzzword ] that allow its members to save on energy, as well as install more energy efficient systems. It partnered with Metrus Energy and CalCEF to create the Ohio Efficiency Resource Program, a financial tool that allows COSE members to install energy efficient programs with no upfront cost or risk.
The COSE Small Business Convention, The largest event that COSE hosts, is on an annual basis. Last year,[ when? ] the convention was hosted in Sandusky, Ohio at the Kalahari Convention Center. The COSE Small Business Convention is the largest in the Midwest.
Sandusky is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. Situated in northern Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie, Sandusky is midway between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east.
Health insurance is an insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses, spreading the risk over a large number of persons. By estimating the overall risk of health care and health system expenses over the risk pool, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to provide the money to pay for the health care benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization such as a government agency, private business, or not-for-profit entity.
Self-insurance is a situation in which a person or business does not take out any third-party insurance, but rather a business that is liable for some risk, such as health costs, chooses to bear the risk itself rather than take out insurance through an insurance company.
Employee benefits and benefits in kind include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Instances where an employee exchanges (cash) wages for some other form of benefit is generally referred to as a "salary packaging" or "salary exchange" arrangement. In most countries, most kinds of employee benefits are taxable to at least some degree. Examples of these benefits include: housing furnished or not, with or without free utilities; group insurance ; disability income protection; retirement benefits; daycare; tuition reimbursement; sick leave; vacation ; social security; profit sharing; employer student loan contributions; conveyancing; domestic help (servants); and other specialized benefits.
David Wilhelm is a global renewable energy developer, currently working for Hecate Energy. Formerly, Wilhelm worked in the venture capital space and as a political campaign manager; most notably serving as Campaign Manager for the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, and later as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is the largest small business association in the U.S. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with offices in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a non-profit that works to defend the right of small business owners to own and operate their businesses without undue government interference. Its political action committee is called Save America's Free Enterprise Trust.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States passed a healthcare reform law in 2006 with the aim of providing health insurance to nearly all of its residents. The law mandated that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a minimum level of insurance coverage, provided free and subsidized health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% and 300%, respectively, of the federal poverty level (FPL) and mandated employers with more than 10 full-time employees provide healthcare insurance. The law was amended significantly in 2008 and twice in 2010 to make it consistent with the federal Affordable Care Act. Major revisions related to health care industry price controls were passed in August 2012, and the employer mandate was repealed in 2013 in favor of the federal mandate. Because Mitt Romney was the governor of Massachusetts at the time, the law has colloquially been called Romneycare, a reference to the nicknaming of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as "Obamacare".
Sick leave is time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health and safety needs without losing pay. Paid sick leave is a statutory requirement in many nations. Most European, many Latin American, a few African and a few Asian countries have legal requirements for paid sick leave.
Health insurance in the United States is any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance" is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes private insurance and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.
Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut is an independent, nonprofit organization with offices in Meriden, Connecticut. The foundation supports the mission of its parent organization, CHART. The foundation has assets of approximately $30 million.
In the United States, health insurance marketplaces, also called health exchanges, are organizations in each state through which people can purchase health insurance. People can purchase health insurance that complies with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at ACA health exchanges, where they can choose from a range of government-regulated and standardized health care plans offered by the insurers participating in the exchange.
Medical Mutual of Ohio (MMOH) is an American mutual health insurance company. It is the oldest and largest health insurance company based in Cleveland, Ohio, and serves more than 1.6 million customers. Employing 2,500 people, Medical Mutual is one of the biggest employers in downtown Cleveland.
A health insurance mandate is either an employer or individual mandate to obtain private health insurance instead of a national health insurance plan.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is a statewide membership organization centered on a mission of pro-business advocacy and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The Georgia Chamber routinely supports good legislation and opposes bad legislation that most small and large business owners would consider a threat to their business success.
There were a number of different health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration. Key reforms address cost and coverage and include obesity, prevention and treatment of chronic conditions, defensive medicine or tort reform, incentives that reward more care instead of better care, redundant payment systems, tax policy, rationing, a shortage of doctors and nurses, intervention vs. hospice, fraud, and use of imaging technology, among others.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the oldest and largest business association of engineering companies. It is organized as a federation of 52 state and regional councils with national headquarters in Washington, D.C., comprising thousands of engineering practices throughout the country. It administers extensive lobbying and education programs.
Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) is a United States national not-for profit organization created in 1995 with more than 700 members providing modeling and measurement tools across benefits programs, research and analysis, and a discussion and education forum. IBI is an independent resource for health and productivity research, measurement and benchmarking.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is divided into 10 titles and contains provisions that became effective immediately, 90 days after enactment, and six months after enactment, as well as provisions phased in through to 2020. Below are some of the key provisions of the ACA. For simplicity, the amendments in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 are integrated into this timeline.
The economy of Greater Cleveland is diverse, but is based on healthcare, banking, finance, education, insurance, manufacturing, sports, and tech. The metropolitan area based in Cleveland is the 33rd largest in the country, and is home to over 2 million people.