Small Business Isn’t Celebrating Health-Care Reform

So why am I challenging the claims of the law’s cheerleaders? Because its effect so far has been a net negative. That’s because many business owners have formed negative expectations of the future effects of the law. For instance, a survey of 459 businesses conducted by Fidelity Investments in June revealed that 49 percent of small employers expect the new law to increase their costs. Many small business owners are responding to these expectations by passing on health insurance costs to employees, by changing the type of insurance they offer, and by planning to drop employee health insurance coverage in the future. (The same Fidelity survey reports that 22 percent of small business owners expect to drop health insurance in response to the law.) In short, any “evidence” that the PPACA has cut small business employee health insurance costs or increased coverage isn’t real.