Posts Tagged ‘us health care law’
The New Health Care Plan: Does Anyone Know How This Really Impacts Small Business?
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Whether you’re for it or against it, the new health care law that was just passed is a big deal. What was a patch-work of state and federal laws focused on certain groups has been replaced with an entirely new system (unless you’re from Massachusetts, and then it’s pretty much the same as what you’ve been experiencing for the past several years).
As any American does, regardless of my ideology, I started to wonder how does this new bill impact me (and KikScore). Now KikScore is unique in that each team member is an owner (meaning we don’t have any actual employees), and most of us have day jobs that cover our health insurance. But as we grow (in terms of hiring employees or having team members work full time on the company), that’s when this new law will be relevant. In trying to understand the actual impact of the laws, I’m really left with two choices: (a) read the actual bill (which is unbelievably long); or (b) rely on a summary from a group or groups that have a vested interest in pushing me one way or an another in how to view the bill. In other words, I haven’t a clue how this will actually impact small businesses. According the White House, it will allow small businesses a $3500 tax credit for each employee. According to those opposed to the law, it will act as a large drain and penalizes small business owners (who can’t afford to cover the employee insurance cost).
I found a good articleon the new law in the USA Today…you’ll note that it’s a question/answer type of article and the small business owner starts off with “I think the new health care law stinks”. Ok, so he’s definitely taken a position. I won’t summarize the whole article, but it does point out: (a) health care for small businesses will become more affordable (as the new system creates bigger buyer pools for the insurance; and (b) the penalty for not buying insurance doesn’t affect those businesses with less than 50 employees.
I’m still fuzzy on what this new law means to Small Business owners, but if you have any better understanding (or just plain feelings on the topic), please feel free to share.
