What The Obama Healthcare Proposal Means for Small Business
by:
BMA Editorial Team A
Innovators Forum guest blogger Jeanne Quinn reports on the National Small Business Association's reaction:
In response to the bipartisan, bicameral health summit at the historic Blair House, President Obama released his health care reform proposal that attempts to reconcile the House and Senate-passed health care bills.
"The President's proposal generally defers to the Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), but identifies the administration's preference where it deviates for the House's Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962).
The 11-page report is not prescriptive; thus, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not assessed the impact of Obama's changes to health care costs. Nonetheless, the administration suggests the cost of the new proposal will increase the overhaul from $871 to $950 billion over 10 years.
The following provides a brief overview of the provisions that have a specific impact on small businesses:
Cost-Containment
- Adopts several provisions from the President's FY2011 Budget and Republican bills to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.
Insurance Market Reforms
- Establishes a new, federal Health Insurance Rate Authority to regulate insurance rates; however, it is unclear how it will work in conjunction with traditional state-based insurance oversight.
- Does not include the House-passed public health insurance option.
- Maintains state-based health insurance exchanges in lieu of national health insurance exchanges favored in the House-passed bill.
Shared Responsibility
- Adopts the Senate's version of the individual mandate, but lowers the penalty for noncompliance from $495 to $325 in 2015 and from $750 to $695 in 2016.
- Adopts the Senate's "free-rider" proposal that exempts employers with under 50 employees from any requirements to pay an assessment for employees with respect to offering health insurance. For employers with more than 50 employees, the following free-rider structure applies.
- If an employer offers coverage but it is determined to be "unaffordable" based on an employee's income, and the employee goes to the health insurance exchange for coverage, then the employer pays $2,000 per employee.
- If an employer does not offer coverage, but the employee goes to the health insurance exchange for coverage, then the employer must pay $750 per employee.
- For employers who are responsible for any of these assessments, the first 30 employees are exempt from any calculations.
Revenue Raisers
- Increases the threshold on the Senate-passed excise tax on high-cost insurance plans (i.e. Cadillac plans tax) from $23,000 to $27,500 (family coverage) and from $8,000 to $10,200 (single coverage) and delays its implementation from 2013 to 2018.
- Thresholds are indexed to general inflation plus 1 percent, but do not adjust until the implementation date; thus, the increase could be undermined by rising health care costs prior to its implementation.
- Excludes dental and vision benefits.
- Maintains Senate-passed 0.9% Medicare HI tax increase for employee portion for individuals making over $200K and families making over $250K.
- Expands the Medicare HI tax of 2.9% on unearned income (interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents).
- Carves-out S-Corps from this expansion.
- Earned income tax goes to Medicare HI trust fund and unearned income tax goes to Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) trust fund.
Although delayed and slightly altered, the President's proposal maintains the health insurer and medical device fees/taxes that have been assessed by CBO as likely passed down to the end consumer."
About the Author:
Jess Wells, Editorial Director of Innovators Forum, and her team of guest bloggers interview experts, entrepreneurs and authors on how to run a small business better. To learn more about small business best practices and the technologies behind them, visit
www.CiscoInnovators.com
No. of Times this article has been viewed :
406
Date Published :
Mar 18 2010
Most Recently Published Small Business Management Articles as of
|
|
Jul 15 2010
Bankruptcy for Small Businesses
by
Bass Franklin
Filing for bankruptcy as a small business owner can have it's advantages, but it can also be complicated.
|
Jul 14 2010
Have You Used a Checklist to Ensure that Your Small Business is an Effective Organization?
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
In this article we discuss what you need to do, and provide you with a checklist to make sure that your small business develops and grows as an effective organization.
|
Jul 14 2010
Business Energy Woes? There are Ways to Cut Costs
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
Running a business is tough enough without having the added stress of having to worry about how you are going to manage paying high energy bills every month. There are however, some measures you can take which will lower those costs.
|
Jul 11 2010
Consider Utilizing a Mobile Card Swiper for PayPal Credit Card
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
The development of the credit card swiper that could be moved anyplace permitted handy swiping of the plastic card for the automated input of the important data into the laptop or computer. And with PayPal credit card processing now achievable, vendors could experience improved sales.
|
Jul 10 2010
Think You Can't Afford Your Own Vending Business? Think Again
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
Some people think they will have to make a huge initial investment to start their business, but one advantage of a vending business is that is can be started with a small investment and can grow at your speed.
|
Jul 9 2010
Small Business Coach Vs Consultant
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
Small business coaching entails bringing about positive change in the working of an organization and the workers as a whole. It helps to determine goals that meet the best potential of the organization.
|
Jul 9 2010
How Small Business Coaching Works
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
Small business coaching not only helps you move forward but also helps in ensuring professional and personal development, which will eventually lead to your personal growth, and success in business...
|
Jul 9 2010
Factors To Consider Before Selecting the Right Payment Gateway for Your Retail Business
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
In conclusion, it is very very important to know your specific needs and available options prior to selecting the right payment gateway for your retail business. Whether your priorities are with costs, integration, or security, plan ahead and decide what your goals are for your business.
|
Jul 9 2010
How Will This Year Be Different?
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
Any fool can be busy. Just as it takes no special talent to run around like a headless chicken, it takes no special talent to be consumed by other people's deadlines.
|
Jul 6 2010
How To Apply for Government Grants: Your First Steps to Avail Government Funding
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
Even if you are looking for additional funds for education, for small businesses, housing, or you are promoting an environmental project, you can also avail of grants from the government.
|
Jul 6 2010
Pros and Cons of Credit and Debit Card Processing
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
The question of whether or not a small business owner should or should not allow credit card transactions is one that is difficult to answer. There are various pros and cons to making either choice which is why it is important to decide if it makes sense ...
|
Jul 5 2010
Why Should a Small Organization Pay Attention to Organizational Effectiveness?
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
In many organizations the way that things are done today often owes more to the history of how the products or services have evolved than to the logic of what is currently required to deliver to the customer.
|
Jul 5 2010
One Small Business Loans Solution for People in a Tight Economy
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
For a year now, most lenders have kept it hard for current and future small business owners to acquire the necessary capital to get things going. The current administration is trying to push things forward, but so far, it has failed to output the results to turn things around.
|
Jul 1 2010
Free Grants for Small Business - Availing More Funds for Your Business
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
If you are looking for free grants for small business to get additional funding to your business's capital, you can explore the possibility of getting financial help from the government.
|
Jul 1 2010
Wholesale Opportunities for Home Based Small Businesses
by
BMA Editorial Team 3
For a home business, no matter what size home business you might have, you are going to want to look into buying items wholesale. There is simply no other way that this can be a success for you - there is something great about buying wholesale and about enjoying the benefits...
|
|
Search for ebooks on Management & Business