NFIB v. Sebelius is history. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) lives on – 1,000 pages of law and 10,000 pages (so far) of regulations. Small businesses ask what lies ahead, and the job-killing answer comes from the Magic 8 Ball®: “REPLY HAZY. ASK AGAIN LATER.”
For decades, the high and erratically increasing costs of health insurance have throttled the capacity of small business to plan and grow. The Great Recession compounded that uncertainty. Now, a Supreme Court-altered PPACA thickens the haze.
An exchange-based health insurance market is scheduled to open on January 1, 2014. The exchanges are essential to other provisions that kick in the same day – individual mandate tax, employer mandate, health insurance tax (HIT), essential health benefits, health insurance premium tax credits (i.e., subsidies), guaranteed issue, modified community rating, etc.