Poll Shows Small Businesses Still Unclear on Healthcare Law

A National Federation of Independent Businesses poll released today shows what has long been established fact, there is a lot of confusion about what the Affordable Care Act means for small businesses. This is understandable given the NFIB has spent considerable effort over the past year trying to derail the law and confuse business owners about how it will impact them. But the fact is, the NFIB poll only tells half the story.

The NFIB survey shows that many small business owners think more people will have insurance because of the law. But the study also shows they think it will do nothing to slow the rising cost of health coverage and that they have others doubts about the law's impact. However, what the survey doesn't mention, but our own scientific polling has shown, is that when small business owners learn more about the new law they like what they hear.

One thing is clear, not a lot of people know much about the ACA, the NFIB's poll shows that only 18 percent of those surveyed think they are very familiar with the law. But our own research paints a more complete picture: most small business owners are not aware of the provisions in the ACA that benefit them, but once they learn about them many are encouraged and think the law will help them afford coverage.

A national poll we released in January shows that many small business owners say that ACA provisions such as tax credits, which help offset the cost of health insurance, and online marketplaces that will open in 2014 allowing small business owners to pool their buying power and get the lower rates their corporate counterparts enjoy, make it more likely they will provide insurance to their employees. Specifically, our poll found:

• 33 percent of employers who currently don't offer insurance said they'd be more likely to do so because of the tax credits
• 33 percent of employers not offering insurance said they'd be more likely to because of the online marketplaces, or insurance exchanges
• An average of 31 percent of respondents, including 40 percent of businesses with 3-9 employees, who currently offer health insurance said the tax credits will make them more likely to continue providing insurance
• 31 percent of respondents already offering insurance said the exchange makes them more likely to continue offering it

The NFIB survey also seems to parrot the findings of a discredited McKinsey & Co. study released in June that predicted a drop in employer-sponsored health insurance due to the new law. Fortunately, we don't have to rely on polls or speculative reports to figure out what will happen when the ACA is fully implemented. We have a real-life example in Massachusetts. Healthcare reform in the Bay State is the closest thing to the federal law in effect, and despite similar speculation before its enactment, employer-sponsored health insurance didn't drop once the law was implemented. It rose. Massachusetts' law is weaker than the ACA, yet employer-sponsored insurance grew by 100,000 people, according to MIT economist Jonathan Gruber. Nationwide, the impact should be even greater because the ACA offers employers much stronger incentives to provide insurance, such as tax credits.

In its poll, the NFIB also claims only 245,000 firms are eligible for the full tax credit and 1.16 million are eligible for a partial credit, far less than what we found to be the case. In 2010, Families USA and Small Business Majority commissioned The Lewin Group to analyze data on business sizes and wages to determine how many small businesses would be eligible for the tax credit. We found that more than 4 million small businesses would qualify for the credit if they offered insurance and nearly 1.2 million would be eligible for the full credit.

What Small Business Majority's polls and the NFIB survey clearly point to is a need to educate small business owners about the provisions in the law designed to help them. It is unfortunate that opponents have decided to go the opposite route,‰ trying to shoot down the ACA in favor of a healthcare system that was unaffordable, inaccessible and unfair to small business.

The status quo was not working. For years, healthcare premiums have been taking double-digit leaps upward, soaring beyond the reach of the average small business owner and jeopardizing entrepreneurs ability to attract and retain valuable employees. The ACA tackles this problem head-on and will allow our small business owners to do what they do best: put America to work.