Small business owners eager to offer their employees an expanded selection of health care options under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly known as healthcare reform, were recently dealt a setback by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Citing “operation challenges”, the HHS issued a proposed rule which will delay a key requirement of the PPACA until 2015; this requirement will eventually offer small business owners and their employees competing health care plans under the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). Until SHOP is fully implemented across the country, most small business owners and their employees will be limited to a single plan. However, the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange has announced that it is “on track” to open in October 2013 and offer these expanded options to small businesses within the state.
The availability and costs associated with health insurance are major – and sometimes crippling – roadblocks for many small business owners and their employees. Without the dominance and collective bargaining power of larger businesses and organizations, small businesses are often forced to pay higher prices for insurance and often cannot afford to offer or subsidize health insurance at all. The PPACA sought to rectify this situation by stipulating that each state form a SHOP exchange, providing small businesses with less than 50 to 100 employees (depending on state rules) an opportunity to compare health care options and enroll employees directly. Some states, including California, Connecticut and Colorado, are proceeding with SHOP exchanges in 2014 despite the delay of the federal mandate.
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