Obamacare: The Expensive and the Ugly

Here’s the short, sweet and ugly about Obamacare from Katie Hays, executive director of congressional and public affairs for the United States Chambers of Commerce.

Overall, Hays said of the bill, “Congress is still trying to learn what’s in it.” The detectives have discovered $569 billion in new taxes and tax increases.

For the first time, small business has to look at health benefits as a long term strategy. One reason is that life will become difficult for those changing plans frequently.

Under the new law, health insurance is supposed to be affordable to employees., as defined by a proportion of the employee’s household income. Discovering this affordable number for each company will require lengthy calculations. Hays was perplexed as to how employers would discover the employee’s household income. Full time “employee” means someone working 30 hours.

The chamber has a number of publications and summaries posted at www.healthreformimpacts.com/businesses_impact/. Hays said there is an 80-page primer for small businesses. I didn’t find it, but you can ask her at khays@uschamber.com.

Hays spoke last Friday (the 13^th) in Las Cruces at the 2010 Business Owners and Entrepreneurs Symposium. Sponsors were the Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University, the Dona Ana Community College Small Business Development Center and the New Mexico Procurement and Technical Assistance Program.