Affordable Care Act ( Obamacare )Blog #4 

Did you know that about one half of New York's uninsured are small business owners, employees of small businesses, and their dependents?

• Defining Small Business: A small business can range from 1 to 500 employees and do millions upon millions in business. In some industries a small businesse can have up to 1,500k employees.

 Small businesses can also include hedge funds using pass-throughs and other loop-holes.

• The United States has almost 6 million small employers, 90 percent of which employ fewer than 20 people.

• Small businesses with under 25 employees benefit the most from ObamaCare.

• 25% of business owners are uninsured, another 50% rely on family. 60% of those who do have private insurance have incomes up to four hundred percent above the poverty level.

• Small Business employees make up over half of the workforce and are the main driving force in job creation.

• Over the past decade, average annual family premiums for workers at small firms increased by 123 percent, from $5,700 in 1999, to $12,700 in 2009, while the percentage of small firms offering coverage fell from 65 to 59 percent.

The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, will offer subsidized healthcare to 83% of small business owners who are currently uninsured.

Did you know that on average, small business owners pay about 18% more than large businesses

for the exact same healthcare coverage?  This is expected to change starting in January 2014.

 Our biggest job creators (small businesses) will still go on creating jobs with high retention rates just like they do now, except they will be able to provide their employees with higher quality and more affordable health insurance.

As Reported By Fox News “The Affordable Care Act tackles small business owners’ top priorities when it comes to health-care reform: cost and accessibility. The law will significantly rein in costs while providing more health coverage options for entrepreneurs,” John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of the Small Business Majority, said in a statement.

So let's be clear, all of your friends, your mom and most of the people you meet on the street who work for small businesses will benefit from the new healthcare reform law. They are projected to see their healthcare costs either stay the same or decrease (taking into account the rate at which health care costs were rising independent of ObamaCare), while the quality of their healthcare and what they can offer to their employees greatly increases.

•Of the 5,930,132 employer firms in 2008, 79 percent had fewer than 10 employees, and 99.7 percent had fewer than 500 employees. (Medium business, although sometimes defined as small business.)

Most Mom and Pop Small Business will not be hurt by ObamaCare. In fact, Obama's health care reform will help them to insure themselves, their families and their employees (in the current system, it's hard for Mom and Pops to provide quality benefits and many don't have health insurance at all). What does this mean and what will Obamacare do with your small business tax dollars?  ObamaCare uses taxes in combination with cuts from wasteful spending in the health care industry to help provide cost assistance in order for employers and employees to afford quality healthcare. Healthcare that can't be taken away when you are sick and coverage that can't deny you for having pre-existing conditions. It provides preventive services and a number of benefits that were not available to most folks before. Of   course, for a small business this means being able to offer your employees more attractive packages and receiving better tax breaks for doing so. For larger small businesses it means that they have to provide insurance for their employees or pay a penalty. Either way, small business is vital in providing affordable quality health care to New York small business employees.

If you are a small business owner or if you know or love someone who has ever been sick, you need consider, not what other people think of ObamaCare, but what the program does for your business and your family. Please remember that Obamacare is still a work in progress. Key issues have been reworked and rewritten.  Nysmallgroupplans.com will continue to do its best in providing New York small business owners with up-to-the-minute accurate details.