Changes

<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 coverage system and also mandating all individuals to sign up for either privately or publicly funded health insurance coverage under a through Qualified Health PlanPlans.

One important concern with the Patient Protection and [[Affordable Care Act]] by 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 a slowing or decrease halting 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 precise harm of Obamacare regulations and mandates to small businesses depends heavily on small business size because the effect effects of Obamacare on small businesses varies so vastly between firms of 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 industrywithin the different industries. 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/].

According to the ACA, only small businesses with fewer than fifty full-time equivalent employees are exempt from the employer mandate. However, at the time of its the ACA'S enactment in 2012, only 200,000 small businesses would have been affected by the employer 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 health care insurance premiums and plans have assuredly risen since the ACA'S enactment, health insurance premiums had already been steadily increasing and small businesses had faced higher premiums than larger firms for many years before its enactment prior [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/] [http://jhppl.dukejournals.org/content/36/3/539.short]. </onlyinclude>

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 equivalent employees are not greatly unavoidably burdened by the ACA. In fact, companies with fewer than 50 FTE, which make up a large portion of small businesses, are not penalized at all for choosing not providing to provide health care to their employees.

If employers with fewer than 50 FTE find themselves unable or unwilling to accommodate the rising costs of health care, they can simply opt out of providing employer-sponsored health insurance. Those who do decide to provide employer-sponsored health insurance will face rising premiums and increased regulation, as a result of the ACA's minimum plan requirements standards for Qualified Health Plans in coverage quality (increased comprehensiveness and affordability in coverage quality).

Although, health Health care is not a mandatory service for small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE , but many small businesses still provide health insurance for to their employees. These companies, along with large companies, are seeing rising premiums steeper premium prices on their insurance due to the ACA stipulation that health care companies cannot deny or charge coverage when considering based on an individual's healthor risk factors, pre-existing conditions, or sex. However, there are options to compensate with the increased (while also non-mandatory) cost of providing health care, the most obvious of which would entail the end of employee-sponsored health insurance coverage by small businesses are opting out or simply increasing the employee contribution to coverage. Small businesses can try to save on rising health care costs in various ways, such as include: