The National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation used its Business Size Impact Module and independent cost estimates to highlight how increased costs from the tax will affect small businesses. Independent estimates project the tax will raise employer-sponsored health insurance costs by 2 to 3 percent, the organization said. The research foundation used the U.S. Small Business Administration’s definition of small businesses as firms with fewer than 500 employees.
The health insurance tax is a provision in the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which the government will levy on insurance companies beginning in 2014. The cost of the tax will be passed on to small businesses and self-employed individuals buying health insurance, the research foundation said. The tax will cost small business owners, their employees and the self-employed across the nation $87 billion in the first 10 years, the organization estimated.
The research foundation projects a reduction of 125,000 to 249,000 jobs by 2021 because of increased heath insurance costs for employers. It estimates 59 percent of the job losses coming from the small-business sector, according to the study.
The Tennessee-based foundation estimated Pennsylvania’s job losses will come from 1,600 small businesses around the state, the organization said.
These numbers “spell out the real-world impact that this tax will have on job creators,” Susan Eckerly, the organization’s senior vice president of federal public policy, said in a statement.
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Study: Pa. Small Biz to Lose Jobs, Revenue Due to Health Tax
Pennsylvania’s small businesses stand to lose 2,200 jobs and $1 billion in sales revenue by 2021 because of a health insurance tax, according to a study recently released by a national research foundation.