Pharmaceutical Tariffs Will Drive Up Costs for Small Businesses

“The latest pharmaceutical tariffs announced yesterday by executive order are likely to increase affordability challenges for small businesses. We know that healthcare expenses are already the biggest cost for most small business owners after payroll, and prescription drugs are a major contributor to those costs. In fact, Small Business Majority’s research found 60% of small businesses that offer health coverage to their employees reported that the cost of prescription drug copays has increased in recent years. 

What’s more, there is no evidence to suggest that tariffs could ever be a substitute for policies that are proven to reduce healthcare costs for Main Street businesses. In fact, a separate Small Business Majority poll taken after pharmaceutical tariffs were announced in September 2025 found 78% of entrepreneurs said lawmakers had not been effective at all in their efforts to lower healthcare costs for small businesses. 

Instead of pursuing policies that come with a high cost for America’s small firms and offer unknown returns or benefits, lawmakers should be focusing their attention on making healthcare more affordable through laws that would increase hospital price transparency, increase tax credits that lower health insurance premiums and increase the power of oversight boards that review and negotiate the price of prescription drugs.”