Small businesses are not on board with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a Gallup survey released last week. The survey of more than 600 small businesses, commissioned by law firm Littler Mendelson, finds that 48% of small businesses say the ACA is bad for their business, while 9% say the legislation is good. Fifty-five percent, meanwhile, fear it will increase costs, while only 5% believe the ACA will lower costs.
The results weren’t surprising, says Steve Friedman, co-chair of the employee benefits group at Littler Mendelson. “We see employers are very pessimistic about how the Affordable Care Act will impact their business. There is a lot of uncertainty about where premium costs are headed but many employers are concerned premium costs will be much higher,” he says. “And there’s of course a lot of concern for smaller employers that haven’t traditionally offered benefits to all fulltime employees, that this enactment could cause their costs of labor to be much higher than they are today.”
