Under the Affordable Care Act, businesses with 50 or more full-time employees might see a drastic change in how they provide health insurance.
Effects of the new law will be felt among the businesses in Athens who don’t have to offer health insurance to employees.
And across the board, some business owners said the changes in health care have been both good and bad.
At Third Sun Solar, Co-Owner Michelle Greenfield said she has always provided health insurance for her employees, even though the company has 22 paid staffers.
Ever since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, Greenfield said she has seen a drop in premiums for those employees.
The change has helped bridge a gender gap in insurance, she said, because in the past, women had rates nearly twice as high as men.
“Overall I think our health care expense for premium has either stayed the same or gone slightly down,” she said. “(Previously) it sort of laid it all out on women. Obama said that’s not allowed anymore.”
Starting in 2014, businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees who average an annual salary of $50,000 or less can get a tax credit worth as much as 50 percent of their contribution toward employee premiums.
It’s an incentive worth exploring, said Josh Thomas, co-owner of Brenen’s Coffee Café and Deli, 38 S. Court St.
Thomas said he and his wife, Jessica, are the business’s only full-time employees, but unlike the employees at Third Sun Solar, they’ve seen their premiums rise more than 10 percent recently.
The increase in personal premiums for Thomas and his wife come as no surprise to Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who also is the director of the Ohio Department of Insurance.
Taylor said she estimates individuals who purchase insurance in the personal market will see their premiums rise by 41 percent.
sh335311@ohiou.edu
@SamuelHHoward
Fast Fact:
Starting in 2014, businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees who average an annual salary of $50,000 or less can get a tax credit worth as much as 50 percent of their contribution toward employee premiums.
