President Obama signed an act into law today that prevents a clause in the Affordable Care Act from redefining a “small business”, which would have raised premiums for about 10,000 Alaskans.
The Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act deals with an obscure provision in ObamaCare that changed the definition of a small employer from one with 50 employees or fewer to one with 100 employees or fewer, beginning in 2016.
The PACE Act prevents that clause from going into effect on January 1, 2016 and restores authority for states to define a “small employer” in a way that works best for their state.
Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski co-sponsored the bill and applauded it’s passage, saying:
“The far-from-Affordable Care Act continues to place a financial burden on Alaskans, from increases in premiums to hidden costly taxes. I’ve opposed the ACA from day one because it was never designed to work in a rural state like Alaska. I am thankful that my colleagues and I were able to work together to fix another one of the shortcomings of this unworkable policy. I will continue to work to reform the ACA and control the price of healthcare for Alaskans.”
If the definition of small employer had expanded, approximately 207 Alaskan businesses would have been affected.
It’s estimated that those businesses’ employees premiums would have increased by 18-23% for approximately 2/3 of the newly defined small employees.