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<onlyinclude>[[Image:obama's signature.jpg|250px|right]] The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act Amendment, the law completely replaced the existing health care system in the United States, expanding Medicaid and Medicare into a universal health insurance overage system, mandating all individuals to sign up for either privately or public funded health insurance.
One important concern with the Patient Protection and [[Affordable Care Act]] by the media and the bill’s adversaries is that “Obamacare” will kill [[Small Business]] [http://www.investors.com/liberal-study-finds-obamanomics-killed-the-american-entrepreneur/]. The visible effect of Obamacare on small businesses is not necessarily seen in the abandonment of plans to grow businesses or death of businesses themselves, but, rather, in the slowing or decrease in hiring of employees and cutting of employee hours. According to a Gallup and Wells Fargo survey of small business owners, conducted in 2012, 48% of small business owners point toward "potential healthcare costs" as a reason for not hiring more employees [http://www.gallup.com/poll/152654/health-costs-gov-regulations-curb-small-business-hiring.aspx]. Still , while the ACA may have caused a slowing or ceasing in small business hiring, the actual harm of Obamacare regulations and mandates to small businesses depends heavily on small business size because the effect of Obamacare on small businesses varies so vastly between firms with different compositions and sizes in their workforces (i.e. number of full time employees, average wages, state of operation).
The SBA has established a summary of the size guidelines for small businesses to qualify "as a small business concern for SBA and most other federal programs" [https://www.sba.gov/contracting/getting-started-contractor/make-sure-you-meet-sba-size-standards/summary-size-standards-industry-sector] (500 employees for mining and manufacturing businesses or an annual receipt of $7.5 in average annual receipts for non-manufacturing firms), but these small business standards still vary from industry to industry. The United States has almost 6 million small businesses that fall under small business size classifications, but 90% of these small businesses employ fewer than 20 people [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/]. The ACA regards a small business with fewer than fifty full-time equivalent employees for exemption status from the employer mandate. In 2012, only 200,000 small businesses would have been affected by the mandate because 96% of the small businesses employed fewer than 50 employees [http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2012/08/10/will-obamacare-help-or-hurt-small-businesses/2/#49ebac0f31e5].
Furthermore, while the cost of providing health care insurance has premiums and plans have assuredly risen since the ACA'S enactment, health insurance premiums had already been steadily increasing for many years before its enactment [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/] [http://jhppl.dukejournals.org/content/36/3/539.short]. </onlyinclude>
=='''How the ACA really affects small businesses'''==
