Affordable Care Act

Summary

Despite all of the backlash the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has received for its perceived potential destruction on small businesses, for the most part, small businesses with under 50 full time employees are not greatly affected by the Act. In fact, companies with under 50 employees, which make up a large portion of small businesses, are not penalized at all for not providing comprehensive and affordable health care to their employees. Companies with between 50 to 99 employees are required to provide insurance, but the penalties imposed for not complying with the ACA requirements were delayed until 2016, while the penalty for companies with >99 employees was delayed until 2015.

Although, health care is not a mandatory service for small businesses with under 50 FTE, many small businesses still provide health insurance for their employees. These companies, along with most larger companies, are seeing rising premiums on their insurance due the ACA stipulation that health care companies cannot deny coverage when considering an individual's health. However, there are options to compensate with these increased (non-mandatory operating cost), the most obvious of which, includes stopping the provision of health insurance or increasing the employee contribution to their coverage.

Obamacare Effects on Small Businesses with 50-99 FTE

Small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE are exempt from the penalties of ACA; however, as soon as a company reaches the 50th employee mark, the hire becomes much more expensive, thus dis-incentivizing small businesses from expanding their labor force. Firms that employ 50 or more workers and don't provide health insurance must pay a tax penalty of $2,000 for each uninsured employee beyond the first 30.vFurthermore, firms with 50+ workers are required to contribute at least 60 percent of the cost for individual minimum essential coverage.