Polling Memo: ObamaCare & Small Business Owners

Small Business Owners: Hands off my Health Care

On June 22, 2010, in remarks on the Affordable Care Act and the new Patients’ Bill of Rights, President Obama declared that “this law [would] cut costs and make coverage more affordable for families and small businesses.”¹

Today, 1,214 days after passage, at 49%, small business owners list the 2010 healthcare law as their biggest challenge, “[rising] significantly in the past quarter and for the third quarter in a row (from 42% in January to 49% in June).”  In fact, “since June 2011, anxiety about the requirements of the law has increased by 10-points since and now surpasses economic uncertainty….”²

And, contrary to the President’s promises, nearly 8 in 10 small business owners (79%) fear ObamaCare will make health care coverage more expensive.  As a result, a total of 74 percent say they will cut hours to reduce full time employees (27%), reduce hiring (24%) and replace full time employees with part-time workers (23%).

Like the majority of Americans, it looks like small business owners’ memo to President Obama is, “hands off my health care.”

DATE: Conducted 6/21-7/8/2013

SAMPLE: Sampled 1,304 Small Business Executives (defined as executive level position in a company with fewer than 500 employees and annual revenue less than $25M); MoE ±2.5%

SOURCE: http://uschambersmallbusinessnation.com/uploads/Chamber%20Small%20Business%20Survey%20Q2%207%2016%2012.pdf

¹http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/content/president-barack-obama-patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act

²http://uschambersmallbusinessnation.com/uploads/Chamber%20Small%20Business%20Survey%20Q2%207%2016%2012.pdf

Headline: http://washingtonexaminer.com/74-of-small-businesses-will-fire-workers-cut-hours-under-obamacare/article/2533131