Undated -- For years, we've heard the Affordable Care Act could be deadly for small businesses -- that they can't afford the new healthcare plan or that workers could lose their coverage.
In fact, small business employers with fewer than 50 full-time employees face no requirement to offer coverage. The plan offers some tax credits for those employers who do offer coverage. And employers who like their current coverage can keep it, as long as the plan was in existence before the Affordable Care Act was enacted on March 23, 2010.
But we wanted to dig even deeper into what this means for businesses and workers. So we went to one of the most prominent, non-partisan sources: The Congressional Budget Office.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts most employers will be just fine offering healthcare. Those that choose not to will likely be small employers who have employees they don't have to cover because those workers will qualify for government backed healthcare.
In fact, the Congressional Budget Office believes some employers who don't currently offer insurance will because of new tax credits and to avoid expensive penalties if they don't offer it.
In the end, the Congressional Budget Office expects only five million fewer people will get their health insurance at work. But most, if not all, of them will get insurance from the new government-subsidized healthcare option. And 60 percent of them would be in that position because they will choose a cheaper subsidized plan over their employer.
WFMY News 2/Congressional Budget Office/Know Your Care