SBA Seminar on Health Reform Touts ACA Benefits
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Officials with the U.S. Small Business Administration offered their assurances Tuesday at a sparsely attended event that smaller companies will benefit from the Affordable Care Act, despite the rocky rollout of its website two months ago.
Representatives of just two companies, along with representatives of the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Youngstown State University, attended an informational seminar on the health care law held at YSU’s Williamson College of Business Administration.
The website problems “did not help with respect to introduction” of the health-care law, acknowledged Jim Duffy, assistant director for lender relations for SBA’s Cleveland District office.
“We try to explain that the contents of the act are what really counts here,” he said. “Once you’re able to get in the website, you’re going to like what you see.”
The Affordable Care Act provides the opportunity for businesses with 49 or fewer employees to provide health insurance to their workforce, something they might not have been able to do in the past, and in most cases they can obtain a subsidy to do so, said Gil Goldberg, district director for SBA’s Cleveland District. Being able to offer insurance to their employees will allow small businesses to be more competitive in terms of hiring and retaining employees with larger companies. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required to offer health insurance.
Tax credits are available to employers based on how many employees they have and how much they pay, Goldberg said.
For years, the No. 1 problem for small businesses has been lack of access to affordable health care for their owners and employees and the health-care law “is basically going to address that problem,” Duffy remarked.
Coverage begins in January on policies purchased through the individual and Small Business Health Options Program – or Shop – marketplaces. Businesses have until Dec. 23 to sign up for policies through Shop.
Although they are unable to utilize Shop to sign up online until November 2014, businesses can use the site to review options and submit a paper application or purchase insurance through a broker, an agent or directly with an insurance company, Goldberg said.
“Businesses are in for a real surprise in terms of the reduction of premium growth that will take place,” Duffy said. The law mandates that 80% of every premium dollar gets spent on providing health care, and not more than 20% can be spent on administrative or overhead costs. Any rate increase of above 10% is subject to review by state or federal exchanges, depending on which is offered in a given state.
“In addition, the quality of the care, the quality of the benefits provided under the policies will be much better probably than what people have now,” he added. “A lot of people are complaining about the increase in the health insurance premiums as a result of the Affordable Care Act, but what they fail to realize is they’re getting a lot better benefit package, much more substantial, than some of the junk policies they owned before.”
George Schorsten Jr., a health insurance specialist with Gem-Young Insurance & Financial Services, Canfield, said he attended the seminar to learn more about Shop for his clients. “There’s a lot of confusion as to how to get on the Shop and how to get coverage or compare coverage,” he said. Much of the confusion centers on benefits, he reported. The seminar cleared up some of the confusion, he said.
“It gave a reinforcement of the penalties and how the penalties are going to be implemented if you don’t have coverage,” he said. “It reinforced that employers under 50 employees really don’t have to participate if they don’t want to and that was good to clear that up. Ultimately, you will need to offer health-care benefits in order to attract good employees.”
Health insurance isn’t a topic that comes up with many of the companies YSU’s Ohio SBDC deals with, but that could change, said Patricia Veisz, director. “We can at least direct our clients, if they do ask us, to the professionals and the websites and the resources to help them,” she said. “It’s a pretty complex matter but at least we have some resources that we can give them to get some of their questions answered.”
Webinars are being offered on the small business health care tax credit by the Internal Revenue Service at 10 a.m. today, and on Dec. 16 and Dec. 18.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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