70% of small businesses report that they have no plans to expand in the next year, confirming that the 9.1% unemployment rate will likely rise again, and leaving many without Arizona medical insurance.
Many small firms are worried about passing the magical number of fifty employees, qualifying them for all the rules and regulations of Obamacare, forcing them to purchase very expensive, low deductible Arizona medical insurance. Fifty or more employees and the employer must purchase a much more expensive Arizona group health insurance policy than what they likely have in place now. If they don’t the company faces many thousands of dollars in fines each year. Of course these fines are still considerably less than what the company would have to pay for the government mandated low deductible policies, so they will simply drop coverage all together. It’s not that they want to, it’s that they will have to drop coverage to stay competitive. All it takes is one company to drop coverage and pay the fine to leave their nearest competitor in a financial dilemma. Do they continue to pay for Arizona medical insurance for their employees, or let their competitor put them out of business by lowering prices with the health insurance savings to a point where they cannot compete.
With the small employer the one that is going to turn this economy around and offer their employees Arizona medical insurance, Obamacare has made it a certainty that they will not any time soon.
Michael Higgins