Supreme Court Decision a Victory for California Small Businesses Looking for Relief from High Healthcare Costs
Statement by John Arensmeyer, founder & CEO of Small Business Majority, on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling today upholding the Affordable Care Act
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling today upholding the Affordable Care Act is a victory for small business owners in California who have struggled with the excessively high cost of health insurance for decades. The Affordable Care Act tackles small business owners' top healthcare priorities: cost and accessibility. The law has the potential to rein in costs while providing more health coverage options for entrepreneurs.
Our opinion polling has found that small businesses in our state believe healthcare reform is needed to fix the economy and they support key provisions, particularly the healthcare exchange and tax credits. Many components of the law, including rate review and the Medical Loss Ratio provision, have already resulted in lower premium costs for small employers. Additionally, the California Health Benefit Exchange's Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), which is in the process of being created thanks to the law, will allow small businesses to pool their buying power to get more affordable coverage when it opens in 2014.
The political circus that has surrounded this law for the past two years hasn't done anything to help small business owners struggling with high costs. Today's ruling lets us get back to what's important: implementing the law and getting California small business owners the financial relief they've been waiting for.
To schedule an interview with John Arensmeyer or a small business owner in your area on this topic, call or email Erin Musgrave at (831) 477-0453 or [email protected], or visit www.smallbusinessmajority.org.
Who is the Small Business Majority?
Small Business Majority is a national small business advocacy organization based in California, founded and run by small business owners, to support America's 28 million small businesses. We conduct extensive opinion and economic research and work with our rapidly growing network of small business owners across the country to ensure their voices are an integral part of the public policy debate. Learn more about us on Wikipedia and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also host the Health Coverage Guide, an independent, unbiased source of information for small businesses about health insurance.