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Small Business and HR 4872
By Gabby Printz | March 23, 2010
I write this as President Obama signs into law the long-disputed health care reform bill.
Whether or not you agree with the legislation, the benefits it brings to small business owners and employees is indisputable. Steve Strauss, small business expert and USA Today contributor writes (in this article) that, overall, the bill is good for small business. Just consider the status quo, he says.
• Only 49% of businesses with 3 to 9 employees (the vast majority of small businesses) offered any type of health insurance to their employees in 2008, down from 58% less than a decade ago.
• 29% of employees at businesses with 25 employees or less were uninsured in 2007, and the number is certainly higher today.
Strauss goes on to say that, “the main reason health insurance is so expensive for small business is that there is a narrow pool of people being insured. Bigger companies with more employees are better able to spread the risk, so premiums are lower, and they also have more buying power due to their size.”
What the bill does is allow small businesses and the self-employed to purchase insurance plans through cooperative pools, or exchanges. “By pooling small businesses together,” Strauss writes, “these purchasing cooperatives are expected to offer rates that should be lower because of 1) increased group purchasing power, and 2) bigger pools of insured customers.”
But mandates for small business employers to provide health care coverage is what seems to have most people upset. These mandates, he says, will have little effect on small businesses, and exempt businesses with less than 50 employees. But even those companies are expected to buy in because of incentives like low cost through exchanges and the various tax breaks and credits included in the legislation.
Additionally, these benefits are also expected to lead to a boost in employment at small firms now offering coverage, or where affordable coverage has become available through purchasing pools.
So even if you think health care reform is a pill you just can’t swallow, know that these changes do in fact benefit small business and hopefully you’ll be seeing these changes soon.
What do you think about the bill? Leave a comment.
Topics: In the News, Policy, Stats | 4 Comments »
September 21st, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Thanks for your article! I appreciated that would come back later
February 2nd, 2011 at 4:12 am
These mandates, he says, will have little effect on small businesses, and exempt businesses with less than 50 employees.
March 16th, 2011 at 5:49 am
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September 27th, 2011 at 8:00 am
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