Small business owners explain health reform benefits for Illinois small businesses

 

 

 Pattie Cagney Sheehan, owner of Second Act; Garry Apelian, owner of Apelian Carpets and Orientals, Inc., and Jonathan VanderBrug of the Campaign for Better Health Care, will hold a press conference today detailing the benefits for small business under the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

 

On July 23, another benefit of the new health reform law will take effect.

In 2010, four million small businesses nationwide will get a tax cut to help them pay for health insurance for their employees.  They will get a credit up to 35 percent of the money the small business owner spends on premiums for employees.  Those credits will increase over time, eventually reaching 50 percent when the Insurance Exchanges go into effect. Small businesses with up to 25 employees that pay average annual wages below $50,000 and provide health insurance will be eligible for the credit.

 

The news conference will be held at the Second Act, 3020 N. Lincoln Avenue, beginning at 11 a.m.

According to participants, America’s 27 million small businesses are the backbone and engine of the US economy. Over half of the private work force takes home a small business paycheck. The ingenuity and hard work of America’s dynamic small businesses create three quarters of our new jobs year after year.

 

Spiraling health care costs are forcing small business owners to choose between providing health benefits or jobs. The new health reform law rewards America’s entrepreneurs by leveling the playing field.

 

Small business owners are getting tax credits this year to make healthcare coverage for their employees more affordable. With the new reform law in place, they can provide the coverage they’ve wanted to be able to give their employees, but haven’t always been able to afford. They’ll have more freedom to do what they do best – innovate, reinvest in their companies, and bring aboard new talented workers.

 

The new law will be implemented over a five-year period (2010-2014) to avoid disruption to the existing system and make transitions as smooth as possible. The general approach is to build upon the existing employer-based health system that employers and employees are used to: insurance will still be purchased from private insurance companies as well as not-for-profit plans, and the private sector healthcare system of doctors, hospitals and other providers will be maintained. Medicare will still cover retirees and Medicaid will continue as it does currently to cover uninsured children and low-income adults, with new flexibility to cover more people.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:    www.cbhconline.org