We are sad to say that small-business owners in Tennessee and Georgia who expect to get help under ObamaCare may meet the same fate as a furniture store owner in Illinois.
Under a tax benefit that the administration is publicizing to help owners of small businesses pay insurance premiums for employees, companies with fewer than 25 workers and average wages below $50,000 are supposed to enjoy “broad eligibility” for the credit.
But “the devil’s in the details.” If a company has more than 10 workers and average pay above $25,000, “the credit drops off sharply,” The Associated Press reported. That is in the fine print that the administration downplayed while it was getting Democrats in Congress to pass ObamaCare.
Zach Hoffman, the furniture store owner in Illinois, has fewer than 25 workers but more than 10. Much to his surprise, he will get zero help under ObamaCare to provide coverage to his workers.
“It leaves you with this feeling of a bait and switch,” he told the AP. In fact, the only way he could get much real help with the $79,000 he pays for his workers’ insurance is if he fired 10 workers and slashed the pay of his remaining employees. That’s not the kind of incentive government should be creating.
Being promised one thing and getting something else is extremely unpleasant. And not only business owners but other groups are going to feel that frustration over the next few years.
Some will find it hard to get a timely appointment with a doctor. That is because ObamaCare will give coverage to tens of millions of uninsured people but won’t increase the number of doctors to meet the flood of new patients. (Many physicians in Massachusetts, which has an insurance program on which ObamaCare was modeled, have stopped taking new patients altogether.)
Others who are already struggling to make ends meet will be fined for not purchasing insurance — with prison time being a possible punishment if they do not pay the fines.
Still others will wonder what is happening to their paychecks as higher taxes to fund ObamaCare consume more and more of their wages.
In light of these frustrations, voters may want to send members of Congress who support ObamaCare a clear message in November.