Health Care Reform-Small Business Concerns

Health Care Reform

Small Business Concerns: With so much uncertainty darkening their horizons, it should perhaps come as no surprise that sentiment regarding the Affordable Care Act amongst small businesses runs towards the pessimistic.  In a Gallup poll released earlier this month, almost half of respondents (48 percent) believed that the health care law will be bad for business, compared to the just 9 percent who said the opposite.  Additionally, 55 percent of these small employers said they anticipate their costs to rise, while 52 percent also expect the quality of the health care benefits they currently provide to their employees to be reduced as a result of the law.  Separately, many small business owners worry that a little known component of the Affordable Care Act, the new health insurance tax (HIT) on insurance providers, will result in higher premiums for them.  While revenue from this new tax is meant to help cover the costs of the health care overhaul, it has been acknowledged that small firms will likely “shoulder most of the burden.”  In fact, a recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) suggests that the HIT could result in hundreds of thousands of job losses over the next decade, more than half of which would be borne by small businesses.  While some argue that the forecast need not be quite so bleak, it’s clear to others that the law has already forced a new decision-making model on business owners coming to grips with their new obligations under its sweeping reach.