An Obamacare insurance exchange scheme that was intended to give American small businesses the ability to choose from a variety of insurance options for their employees will not be ready until at least 2015, according to new reports. The program, which was supposed to go into effect this fall, will simply not be ready in time, which means small businesses will have only one insurance option.Not surprisingly, the delay could eventually put many small companies out of business, or at the very least force them to lay off some of their employees. Many small businesses already have a difficult time voluntarily providing health insurance coverage for their employees, which means the new Obamacare mandates will only make the situation worse by putting additional strain on the small business sector.
"Lots of small businesses struggle with providing insurance for their workers so this was supposed to facilitate it and make it easier for small business to do this," says Jim Capretta from the Ethics and Public Policy Center about the insurance exchange program. "It was a huge portion of the sale job. When they passed the law in 2010 there were many senators and members of Congress who were saying 'I am doing this because it's going to help small businesses'."
Obamacare: The biggest job-killer of the past decade
In reality, Obamacare is shaping up to be nothing more than an insidious job-killer that will only further stifle the economic growth of the American economy. None of the promises made with regards to the bill have been fulfilled, after all, and the way things are looking, the entire thing is already a failure before it has even been implemented."I talk with a lot of businesses that are thinking of self-insuring or finding any loophole they can to avoid the most onerous parts of Obamacare," says political analysis Scott Rasmussen, founder of Rasmussen Reports, as quoted by National Review Online.
Even when the insurance exchanges are finally up and active, though, small businesses will still suffer. According to a study recently put together by the Society of Actuaries, medical claims by policyholders enrolled in Obamacare health care exchange plans are expected to rise by anywhere from 32 to as much as 80 percent in some states, which will put tremendous strain on the system.
"There's no way to implement this properly because it's a flawed law to start with," says Dr. Donal Palmisano, a former president of the American Medical Association (AMA) and spokesman for the Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights, as quoted by KTRH AM 740. "It takes away the liberty of the individual and it's so complex that people don't understand it and most people who voted for it did not read it."
