Small Business Owners Clobbered by Obamacare

Here in The Wall Street Journal, read about the $63 per employee tax that will hit small business owners, thanks to O’Care. Companies with over 200 workers largely self-insure and thus will not be part of the O’Care mess. In fact 83% of these big companies already self-insure and are largely insulated from the O’Care debacle. Small business owners are hung out to dry and face the future with a growing uncertainty. Is there any reason to wonder why America’s primary job creators wish to hold off on hiring?

Starting next year, small businesses are among those poised to bear the brunt of a little known tax created by the Affordable Care Act that will impose an annual “fee” on health-insurance companies. The fee is expected to bring in a total of $8 billion next year and as much as $14.3 billion by 2018, according to the legislation, and will be spread out among insurers based on the percent of the market they cover.

But the Congressional Budget Office and industry experts say the expense will largely be passed on to small businesses and consumers who buy their own policies in the form of higher premiums.

To be sure, the new health law will also impose other fees and taxes, including a $63 tax on each person covered in a health plan starting next year.

“I’m very frustrated because of the uncertainty,” says Mr. Norris, whose firm, Norris International Services LLC, makes tubing, drill stems and other products for companies in the oil and gas industry.

Mr. Norris says he has put plans to expand into new product lines on hold until he knows what his premiums will look like next year. He says his insurance broker projects they will increase by as much as 20%. “I could hire another 25 employees right now but I’m holding off,” Mr. Norris says.

When asked about the tax, a government spokeswoman said its purpose is to ensure that at least part of insurance companies’ profits from customers added under the Affordable Care Act “be reinvested to help the health care system work for all Americans.”