It’s coming… and most small businesses have no clue that it’s coming.
The mandated expansion of Obamacare to capture successful and expanding small businesses which hold fewer than 51-100 employees is moving forward unless Congress can stop it.
The bill is HR 1624 and it’s designed to allow states the latitude to define what that threshold should be so that we don’t allow a cookie-cutter imposition from Washington to define the parameters.
If it doesn’t pass, Obamacare will capture those small and successful firms with employees ranging from 51-100 employees — forcing them to drop their current insurer and into the “small group market” where the costs for working families and small businesses both are simply not affordable. In short, it’s delivering a massive uppercut to small businesses at the worst possible time for the economy.
Worse, if these businesses are forced to make a choice, guess what happens? They opt-out or self-insure, which means fewer people are paying into the system, thus centralizing risk among fewer health care policy holders. For policy wonks, it’s a balkanization of health care and an introduction of insecurity just at a time when small businesses are looking for sure, stable solutions — no good on any front.
Thankfully, most folks with a stake in the conversation are supportive of this measure (and its companion bill S. 1099 in the Senate). The only roadblock? The Obama administration… and whatever pressure they might bring to bear on members of Congress to come up with something that doesn’t surrender control to state governments.
Should this mandate to contract the definition of a small business be imposed, the economic consequences would be particularly dire. The smart move? Leave well enough alone and let individual states do what’s best for New York, California, Alabama, Virginia… etc.
The change is slated to come down on January 1st, 2016 — end of this year. For things that move at the speed of Congress, now is the time to start paying attention.
