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Health care in the U.S. has been a prominent conversation in the media in recent weeks, and small businesses and how health care legislation currently impacts them are often involved.
In a recent report by The New York Times, small business owners expressed mixed opinions about the state of health care in the U.S.
According to the article, small business owners who employ around 50 employees find the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, to be burdensome in regards to cost and regulations, but small business owners who only employ themselves have gained access to health insurance through the law that was previously unavailable.
One small business owner in the article says that the Affordable Care Act was the reason she and her husband were able to start their business in the first place. Another small business owner says the premium they pay now is twice as much as they were paying previously. Yet another business owner chose to forgo coverage and put the money back into her business. Both of those business owners say in the article that they like the idea of the coverage, but it is cost-prohibitive.
The National Federation of Independent Business was recently lobbying the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act during the legislative body’s recent consideration of the law, reports the Times.
“Small-business owners are deeply disappointed,” Jack Mozloom, a spokesman for the group, says in the article. “The high cost of health care has been the No. 1 concern for small business owners for more than three decades.”
In the early morning of July 28, the Senate voted 49-51 against a bill that would have eliminated key provisions of the Affordable Care Act—the individual mandate to purchase insurance and the requirement that large employers provide insurance—according to The New York Times.
