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<onlyinclude>[[Image:obama's signature.jpg|250px|right]] The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act Amendment, the law completely replaced the existing health care system in the United States, expanding Medicaid and Medicare into a universal health insurance overage system, mandating all individuals to sign up for either privately or public funded health insurance.
One important and commonly voiced concern with the Patient Protection and [[Affordable Care Act]] by the media and the bill’s adversaries is that “Obamacare” will kill [[Small Business]] [http://www.investors.com/liberal-study-finds-obamanomics-killed-the-american-entrepreneur/]. The visible effect of Obamacare on small businesses is not necessarily seen in the abandonment of plans to grow businesses or death of businesses themselves, but, rather, in the slowing or decrease in hiring of employees and cutting of employee hours. According to a Gallup and Wells Fargo survey of small business owners, conducted in 2012, 48% of small business owners point toward "potential healthcare costs" as a reason for not hiring more employees [http://www.gallup.com/poll/152654/health-costs-gov-regulations-curb-small-business-hiring.aspx]. While the ACA may have caused a slowing or ceasing in small business hiring, the actual harm of Obamacare regulations and mandates to small businesses, however, depends entirely on what is considered a small business. The effect of Obamacare on small businesses varies vastly between firms of different composition and size within their workforces (i.e. number of full time employees, average wages, state where the business is operated). Furthermore, while the cost of providing health care insurance has assuredly risen since the ACA'S enactment, health insurance premiums had already been increasing for many years [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/]. </onlyinclude>
The United States has almost 6 million small businesses, and 90% of these businesses employ fewer than 20 people [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/].
The Affordable Care Act uses the language “full-time equivalent” (abbreviated FTE); a . Calculation for finding the number of full-time equivalent employee is the employees: (total number of full-time employees plus + the combined number of part-time employees hours divided by )/ 30. Another criterion for determining mandate-exemption or tax-credit status in the ACA is the average annual wage of employees; average annual wage of a business is calculated by dividing the total wages paid by an employer by the number of FTEs, rounding down to the nearest $1,000 [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/].
Most Another criterion for determining mandate-exemption or tax-credit status in the ACA is the average annual wage of employees. The average annual wage of a business = total wages paid by an employer/number of FTEs, rounding down to the mandates nearest $1,000 [http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-small-business/]. The employer mandate of the ACA are is passed onto larger companies - firms with larger than 50 FTE (full time equivalent employees) - but many of these larger corporations also already offer health insurance coverage for their employees. However, companies between 50 and 100 FTE, which are still required by the ACA to offer health insurance coverage to their employees, are have been affected in a slightly more complicated way.
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===For small Small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE===Despite all of the backlash the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has received for its perceived potential destruction on small businesses, for the most part, small businesses with under 50 full time employees are not greatly devastated burdened by the ActACA. In fact, companies with fewer than 50 employees, which make up a large portion of small businesses, are not penalized at all for not providing health care to their employees.  Thus, if employers with fewer than 50 FTE find themselves unable or unwilling to accommodate the rising costs of health care, they can simply opt out of providing employee-sponsored health insurance. Those who do decide to provide employer-sponsored health insurance will have to deal with the issue of rising premiums and other slightly increased regulations, as a result of the comprehensive and affordable minimum coverage plan quality accepted by the ACA.
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[http://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/08/5-smart-ways-small-firms-can-slash-health-care-costs.html].
===Effect on Small Businesses with 50 and 99 employees===
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Small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE are exempt from the penalties of ACA; however, as soon as a company reaches the 50th employee mark, the hire becomes much more expensive, possibly dis-incentivizing small businesses from expanding their labor force. Firms that employ 50 or more workers and choose not to provide health insurance coverage must pay a tax penalty of $2,000 for each uninsured employee beyond the first 30. Furthermore, firms with more than 50 workers must contribute, at a minimum, 60 percent of the cost for individual minimum essential coverage. [http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st356]. This increased marginal cost we see for the 50th employee serves as the reason why many critics of the ACA believe that Obamacare the ACA is killing jobs, and also why many small business owners may have concerns about expanding their businesses.
According to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management of more than 600 small business owners, more than four out of ten small business owners "have delayed hiring due to uncertainty about the effects of the Affordable Care Act." One in five small business owners reported that they have cut their number of employees. The Society for Human Resource Management also found about one in five small businesses are reducing workers' hours to part time because they are not required to offer coverage for employees who work less than 30 hours per week. These part-time employees are eligible for subsidized coverage in the new health insurance exchanges offered through the ACA [http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st356].
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The SHOP Marketplace or Exchange (Small Business Health Options Program, is a provision of the ACA designed to help small businesses get lower health insurance rates using group plans and also to claim tax credits. However the The SHOP exchange did not open up to employers with less than 50 FTE until 2015 and only just opened up in 2016 to businesses with 100 FTE or less. A SHOP allows for some increased employer choice functions, thus, enabling employers to choose from a larger field of available coverage options for its employees [http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc501935/m1/1/high_res_d/R43181_2015Jan15.pdf]. However, it is still unclear whether there is a the financial advantage in using the SHOP exchangesexchange is uncertain, as insurers in the marketplace regardless will still not be unable allowed to charge premiums based on health status, and workers using the SHOP exchanges, will become ineligible for subsidies when they buy their own insurance [http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st356]. What the SHOP program does do, however, is offer small businesses is increased buying power in the group-plan market (an advantage only larger firms used to possess), and the exchange also offers a simpler way to compare prices, coverage, and quality of plans [http://obamacarefacts.com/insurance-exchange/shop-exchange/].
===Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit===
There is also a temporary health insurance tax credit available to firms with 25 or fewer employees and making less than $50,000 in annual wages, but many firms do not meet the strict requirements necessary for obtaining the tax credit that would cover part of the employer contributions for their employees' health insurance premiums.  To qualify for the small business tax credit, employers have to cover at least 50% of employee-only health care coverage for every employee and purchase their insurance coverage through the SHOP Exchange. Additionally, there are further qualifications, such as only employers with 10 or fewer FTE with annual wages of less than $10,000 can qualify for the full tax credit for that covers up to 50% of their share of employee premiums.  The health insurance tax credit became available to firms in 2014 [http://obamacarefacts.com/insurance-exchange/shop-exchange/]. However, this The tax credit is extremely incredibly under-inclusive, and according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, only one in three small businesses qualify [http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st356]. Of the estimated 1.4 to 4 million small businesses that were eligible for the wide range of tax creditcredits, only 181,000 actually claimed the Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit in 2014.  According to Holly Wade, the director of research and policy analysis for the NFIB Research foundation, "The the small business tax credit is a better talking point than it is a financial incentive for small businesses" [http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/washingtonbureau/2016/03/why-obamacares-tax-credits-failedsmall-businesses.html].
=='''2016 Election Candidates’ Positions on the ACA'''==
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