Subjective: Small Business 1. Goals:
For small business, profit is the top issue. Small business used to struggle to offer the health coverage to their workers because of the cost. Under the practice of ACA, small business is eligible to be likely to get tax credit to help with the cost of the health coverage for their workers [1][2]. To maximum the revenue and protect the workforce, small business would like to support ACA when it comes to provide the tax credit and also make the limitation of the credit requirement of the provisions more feasible. Furthermore, small businesses are hoping that ACA will be tweaked when it comes to a penalty for providing insurance particularly [3].
2. Political Environment:
Stakeholders
Small business is defined legally varied by country and by industry [4]. Under the health care reform bill Patient Protection and affordable Care Act, a small business with fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees with average annual wages below $50,000 qualifies for a tax credit which is eligible to receive a tax credit of up to 35% of the cost of the health coverage that they provide for their employees. Small businesses should afford at least 50% of each employee’s health insurance premiums to qualify the tax credit. As of 2014, the size of the credit will raise to cover up to 50% of the cost of health insurance provided to workers. The taxes credit of small business in 2010-2013 and 2014 and beyond can be shown in table 1 and 2.
Table 1.: 2012-2013 Tax Credits for small Businesses [5]
Table 2.: 2014 and beyond Tax Credits for small Businesses [5]
The relevant groups of small business are the business owners, their family, any shareholders, and the employees. Though the small business is the economic entity with fewer revenue and employees, the small business is the engine room of economy and it represents for the majority of the economic force in American. With the estimation of the white house, at least 360,000 small businesses would take advantage of the small business health care tax credit in 2011 and these small businesses provide health insurance to an estimated 2 million workers. Taking California for example, more than 375,000 small businesses, employing 2.4 million workers would be eligible for the tax credit when filing their 2011 taxes. Totally, these small businesses are eligible for more than $1.8 billion in credits for the 2011 tax year alone, an average of $752 per employee. However, not all small business owners are in the same page. Some small business owners are also going to face an onslaught of mandates and taxes that might result in job loss and closed businesses. In the other hand, the small business worried that the penalty could cost them thousands.
Decision-makers/ Resources
Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and also the primary source of jobs for Americans. Though small business does not directly take part in the policy making decision the support of small business is no doubt one of the critial elements for any politic partys and politicains. The support of the small business is powerful hence the policy decision makers are always looking for the advocacy of the small business. As a result, the attitude of the associations or organizations of small business has become the indicator of the politic solution. For example, to meet the opposition from some small business to ACA, Mitt Romney, the president candidate, promised members of the nation's small business lobby that, if elected, he would shut down health care reform, reduce taxes and tackle regulations [6]. Moreover, National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB, a conservative-leaning small-business lobby spent more than $1.2 million on the lawsuit against the health reform about whether the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance or pay a