Small business owners are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of healthcare. Nearly a third have recently stopped offering health benefits as premiums continue to climb.

It is critical that lawmakers understand the various reasons for rising costs, and begin to address them now — one by one — or small businesses will continue to drop health coverage due to unsustainable costs. One of these reasons is the hospitals’ exploitation of a little-known federal charity program. Without reforms, that program will only continue to drive up costs for small businesses and the self-employed.