Tuesday, January 20, 2015

How Obamacare Treats Small Business

By Jeannie Monette


All benefit greatly from health insurance which includes employees as well businesses found today. The opportunity to apply and get adequate insurance coverage isn't something that everyone is able to hold of particularly to small business. With the emergence of ObamaCare however, it is now easy to provide individuals adequate insurance coverage today. Small time business owners though still have doubts and speculations on how their business will be affected by this act.

By 2015/2016, ObamaCare (formally the Affordable Care Act) requires that employers purchase and provide the necessary health insurance for their workers or pay a penalty for it. A nice incentive are given to companies such as tax breaks and tax credits available via SHOP exchange to those who comply with ObamaCare small business health insurance requirements. Small businesses who have an equivalent of 25 full-time employees or less can take advantage of such privilege. ObamaCare does not necessarily hurt small business as 90% of US firms today have less than 20 full-time employees today.

Rising health insurance cost is one of the main reason why small business today are having a hard time providing their employees with the much needed insurance coverage. Employers are tasked to insure their full-time employees in small businesses with 50 or more employees through with ObamaCare. As discussed previously, a good amount of privileges such as generous tax credits are given to businesses with 25 or less full-time employees if they ever decide to make use of ObamaCare.

Business owners will need to start insuring their workers by 2016 with the employer insurance mandate. Employer Shared Responsibility takes part in this mandate. An annual employer mandate fee is given to those who did not provide or offer health coverage to their 50 or more full-time employees. Full-time equivalent employees are what this fee is based upon and not just full-time employees. Furthermore, the Employer Shared Responsibility Payment is not tax deductible unlike the employer contributions to employee premiums.

Full-time and part-time employees and identifying them can become a bit confusing with ObamaCare. Benefits should be provided to a person who works an average of 30 hours a week or more as they are already considered to be full-time. No employer insurance mandate needs to be applied for those who are averaging less than 30 hours a week.

Whether you have full-time or part-time employees, it is always best to provide them with the necessary amount of protection throughout the whole course of their employment. This not only helps boost their overall productivity but also their morale. Find out more about ObamaCare and how this affects your business today.




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