After years in the making, this coming October 2013 marks the beginning of the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. Given the sweeping changes of the new law much mis-information and media hype trying to explain it has only fueled the flames of confusion and distrust as to what actions small business owners must take. Congressman Waxman’s office recently offered to help by sending me a link to the SBA which is now conducting Free Webinar updates on their website to help clarify employee vs employer impacts starting this fall.
The SBA is offering several Free LIVE Webinar opportunities so business owners can ask questions and get answers. Here’s the link http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/community-blogs/health-care-business-pulse/affordable-care-act-101-weekly-webinar-se
Remember the “employer mandate” component of the law has been postponed 1-year to January 2015. Meaning businesses with more than 50 employees will have one more year to prepare to offer health insurance to their employees. Recall the actual number of small businesses with more than 50 employees that currently DO NOT offer health insurance is below 5% nationally. So for the vast majority of small businesses in the U.S. nothing will change.
The “individual mandate” on the other hand, will roll-out this fall as scheduled, unchanged by the 1-year delay. That means by January 2014 uninsured Americans en masse will be expected to participate in the market by purchasing healthcare insurance on the new state Healthcare Exchanges popping up across the country. For those in California the new H/C exchange is called www.CoveredCalifornia.com
Given this new law will likely impact you or somebody you know, aka your employees, I suggest each CEO get better educated on the subject before employees come asking about their options. These new SBA Webinars as a result offer an easy opportunity to get up to speed quickly.
Rick