Fix Health Care Policy

One of the great promises of Obamacare, you’ll recall, was that it would give folks working in small businesses better access to affordable care. “It works for small business owners,” Nancy Pelosi announced, “providing access to affordable group rates and creating a tax credit for them to help them insure their employees.” This sounded like it would be a huge help, because small firms struggle to find affordable coverage for their workers.

Unfortunately, the Obamacare small-business tax credit just doesn’t get the job done, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s largest small-business advocacy group. NFIB reports that provisions aimed at expanding small-business-sponsored coverage will have little real impact—though their cost will be all too real. (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, Dr. Bob Graboyes, NFIB, ObamaCare, Side Effects, small businesses, tax credit

The National Federation of Independent Business, representing the interests of small businesses across America, today joined more 20 states on the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. The move is the latest blow to President Obama’s post-passage public relations effort.

NFIB’s involvement was prompted by the individual and employer mandates, new taxes and onerous paperwork requirements. An accompanying statement said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would devastate small business, threatening their viability. The lawsuit’s two main legal claims involve the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate.

Last month Heritage’s John Ligon documented how Obamacare penalizes small businesses: higher health care costs, an ineffective small business tax credit, higher regulation compliance costs, and Medicare taxes on “flow-through” and investment income.

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Tags: constitutionality, employer mandates, new taxes, NFIB, ObamaCare, onerous paperwork requirements, U.S. Small Business Administration

After “many months of discussion” in which the National Federation of Independent Business was engaged in efforts to ensure that the high cost of health care was adequately addressed in reform legislation, the organization yesterday came out in full force against the Senate health care bill, declaring it a “disaster for small business:”

Small business can’t support a proposal that does not address their No. 1 problem: the unsustainable cost of healthcare. With unemployment at a 26-year high and small business owners struggling to simply keep their doors open, this kind of reform is not what we need to encourage small businesses to thrive.

We oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act due to the amount of new taxes, the creation of new mandates, and the establishment of new entitlement programs. There is no doubt all these burdens will be paid for on the backs of small business. It’s clear to us that, at the end of the day, the costs to small business more than outweigh the benefits they may have realized.

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Tags: business, Harry Reid, health care, NFIB, ObamaCare, small business, taxes, unemployment

“Congress is running out of opportunities to prove to small business that they are serious about helping our nation’s job creators. We are hopeful that a robust bipartisan debate will produce a bill that small businesses see as a solution and not another government burden.”

Read the November 19, 2009  statement from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) regarding the Senate Health Care Bill.

Tags: NFIB, Senate Health Bill