The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010 and is being rolled out in stages. Many reforms, most notably the individual health insurance exchanges, won’t go into effect until 2014, but some small-business owners are experiencing sticker shock already and blame the new law for the rising health insurance rates they’ve seen over the past 2 years.

Supporters of insurance exchanges argue that they can be a game-changer for small-business owners in particular. Insurance exchanges can offer new options for covering employees at competitive and more realistic prices, they argue. Currently, small-business owners typically pay much higher premiums than large employers because they don’t have a large enough pool to spread out risk and reduce the cost of coverage.

Here are a few options small businesses can consider as they wait for healthcare reforms to kick in:

1. FIND OUT IF YOU QUALIFY FOR A SMALL-BUSINESS TAX CREDIT.

Businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees paying staffers an average annual salary of less than $50,000 may now be eligible for tax credits of up to 35% of the cost of their premiums. Employers need to pay more than half the premium to qualify. It is difficult for many employers in a higher-wage market such as Chicago to qualify, but for those smaller businesses that fit the narrow definition, pursuing the credit may be well worth the effort. Tax experts estimate only half of small businesses even realize there’s a health care tax credit that they could qualify for.

2. ANALYZE WHETHER YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD CONTINUE OFFERING COVERAGE UNDER HEALTH REFORM.

Under the new law, employers with staffs of 50 or more could face penalties of $2,000 per employee if they don’t provide insurance. Some business owners say their coverage already exceeds that, so a penalty could be a more affordable option. If you run a mid-sized business, start analyzing whether it would make sense to continue offering coverage or to pay the penalty and send employees to a state exchange.

Illinois is among 17 states that have made significant progress toward developing health insurance exchanges, the new markets on which individuals seeking insurance will be able to purchase it that begin January 1, 2014, according to the AP analysis. Thirteen states have already adopted a plan, but are home to only 25% of the uninsured. The 20 states lagging behind account for the biggest share of the uninsured, 42 percent.

3. ADOPT A WELLNESS STRATEGY.

While a wellness incentive plan for employees may not pay big dividends right away, the plans help employers qualify for significant discounts on overall coverage. By providing employees with tools, resources, and incentives to make and maintain healthy lifestyle choices, health insurance premiums become lower over time as the overall health of the company improves. Insurance companies such as United Healthcare, Humana, and BlueCross BlueShield are also trying to provide a more robust solution around wellness by offering rewards-based programs to their members. Members have to do something for a healthy lifestyle to earn an incentive. For example, if a smoker attends a smoking cessation program, an insurance company may reward them with a gift card.

4. LOOK CLOSELY AT STATE-RUN HEALTH INSURANCE CO-OPERATIVE PLANS.

The ability of states to develop non-profit, member-run health cooperatives that could compete for better rates is part of the health reform legislation, and some advocates feel this aspect of reform hasn’t gotten the spotlight it deserves. While cooperatives have produced mixed results in the past, they can reduce costs when done right, particularly for small-business owners. Health cooperatives are a great opportunity, and hardly any small businesses know about this option. For small group employers, this could mean finding whole new ways to bring competitiveness to the table.

Tags: 2012 Small Business Health Care Reform, Illinois small business health insurance mandates 2012, Illinois small business health insurance options, Small Business health insurance laws, small business healthcare laws

The Obama administration defended its healthcare overhaul law before the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, rejecting arguments by critics who warned that if the government can require people to have health insurance, it might next make them eat broccoli.

Administration attorneys, in court filings and at a briefing, said Congress was within its constitutional powers in requiring Americans to buy insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, a centerpiece of the law known as the individual mandate.

The law’s opponents have argued that Congress overstepped its authority and have raised the hypothetical question of whether Congress next could require that all Americans eat broccoli because of the nation’s obesity crisis.

The Supreme Court has scheduled three days of oral arguments in the legal battle for March 26-28, with an election-year ruling expected by the end of June.

The law, Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, seeks to provide health insurance to more than 30 million previously uninsured Americans. His prospective Republican presidential opponents all have strongly opposed the law.

A Supreme Court ruling striking down the law would be a major political and legal setback for Obama ahead of the election, while a decision upholding it would be vindication. Polls show Americans deeply divided over the law.

A senior administration official, who declined to be identified, told reporters that Congress, in adopting the law, responded appropriately to a national crisis after years of debate.

The broccoli hypothetical has “no relevance to the case at hand,” the official said, maintaining that the insurance purchase requirement was “not the same” as mandating that people eat or buy broccoli.

The healthcare law has been challenged by 26 of the 50 states and by an independent business group as an unprecedented move by Congress that exceeds its constitutional powers.

The states involved in the challenge, in a Supreme Court brief, on Friday said the entire law, which President Barack Obama signed in March 2010, should be struck down.

“The individual mandate is the centerpiece of the entire federal health care act,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi of Florida, a state that has led the legal challenge.

“If the court removes the individual mandate, the main hub of the act, the entire health care law must be invalidated.”

The administration’s arguments in its brief backing the law largely mirrored those previously made in its initial appeal to the Supreme Court filed at the end of September.

The attorneys said the law was an attempt by Congress to address a crisis in the national health care market, capping nearly a century-long effort to expand access to health care by making affordable health insurance more widely available.

They cited statistics showing that healthcare accounts for 17 percent of the nation’s economy and argued that the law was a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Constitution to regulate economic activity affecting interstate commerce.

The brief also cited a law that Massachusetts adopted in 2006 when Mitt Romney was governor. Romney is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination to face Obama in the November elections.

The brief said Congress cited the Massachusetts law as a model for key provisions, including the provision requiring that individuals purchase insurance or pay a tax penalty.

Opponents of the law also filed briefs with the Supreme Court on Friday.

The conservative American Center for Law and Justice filed a brief on behalf of 117 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 100,000 of the center’s supporters urging the justices to declare the entire law unconstitutional.

Thirty-six Republican U.S. senators said in a separate brief the entire law must fall if the individual mandate is struck down.

The Supreme Court cases are National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, No. 11-393; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, No. 11-398; and Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services, No. 11-400.

For National Federation of Independent Business: Michael Carvin of Jones Day.

For Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services: Donald Verrilli Jr, Solicitor General of the United States.

For Florida: Paul Clement of Bancroft.

(Original Source from Reuters)

Tags: Healthcare Law, Healthcare Reform 2012, Obama Healthcare Reform Supreme Court, Obama Lawyers Defend Healthcare Law In Supreme Court