The Small Business Summit draws more than 200 people to Groton

April 22, 2024 7:17 PM • Last updated: April 22, 2024 7:17 PM

Groton – More than 200 people gathered here Monday for the second annual CT Small Business Summit, with keynote speaker U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, who praised efforts by the Biden administration and congressional Democrats to lower prescription drug costs to help reduce both employers and employees.

Courtney said that not long ago, prescription drugs only accounted for 10% of total health care costs in the United States, but today that percentage has nearly doubled. This is why Courtney said he supported the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowered the cost of drugs like insulin for people getting Medicare, and also why he now supports the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act, which would help reduce costs for reduce employees. -based health plans, he said.

“It’s something that screams like common sense,” Courtney, D-2nd District, told attendees during a luncheon speech at the Mystic Marriott. “Drug costs continue to rise faster than inflation.”

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, another speaker, pointed out Monday that the state has done its part to make health care more affordable by giving more people access to insurance through Access Health Connecticut, a program that emerged from the Affordable Care Act. also known as Obamacare. In the past decade since the program launched, she said, the percentage of uninsured people in Connecticut has dropped from 10% to 5%.

State officials and program supervisors attending the summit, sponsored by Access Health Connecticut and the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, thanked small business owners for their commitment to creating jobs in Connecticut.

“You are the heroes of the day,” Bysiewicz said. “You are the backbone of our economy.”

“We are so blessed to live in a state that truly cares about small businesses,” said keynote speaker Fran Pastore, CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council.

Pastore said she founded the women’s business group in 1997 after discovering that Connecticut was the only state in the country without a federally funded program for women entrepreneurs. Less than a decade ago, the Women’s Business Ownership Act for the first time allowed women to run a business without the need for a male co-signer.

Now the state-funded WBDC operates in four cities, including New London, and is about to open its fifth location in Hartford, providing Ignite Grants of up to $10,000 to women-led small businesses to access capital to scale up their operations. . It also offers free advice and networking opportunities.

“It’s really about self-confidence, and that’s especially important for women,” says Pastore. “We all want you to succeed. … If you do well, the economy does well, our state does well and we all win.”

Rep. Courtney pointed out that southeastern Connecticut’s economy is the fastest growing labor market in Connecticut and the second fastest growing in New England, thanks in large part to the 5,300 new jobs created annually at Electric Boat.

“We André Bumgardner, D-Groton, who spoke in the morning session. “Thank you for being innovators.”

Earlier in the morning session, State Comptroller Sean Scanlon, the state’s chief financial officer, made a pitch to get small business owners to sign up for MyCTSavings, a free way to offer employees a retirement plan. Right now, he said, only about half of Connecticut companies offer employee retirement plans, mainly because of costs.

The program launched in 2023 and approximately 700 companies signed; now there are almost 6,400 participants.

“We have made a lot of progress in this area in just one year,” said Scanlon.

He added that small businesses also have access to a drug discount card to help employees manage their medical costs.

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