CMS report outlines ACA’s impact on small businesses

A recent report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services demonstrates the adverse impact the Affordable Care Act has on small business health plans, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said on Monday.

The report concluded that the healthcare law would lead to higher premiums for approximately 11 million people in the small group market and lower premiums for approximately 6 million people.

“The Obama administration’s long delay of this CMS report is consistent with the rest of the law – behind schedule and bad news for small business,” Graves, the chairman of the House Small Business Committee, said. “The fact that two-thirds of Americans who work at small businesses will see premium increases because of the health law is devastating news. This is one more in a long line of broken promises from President Obama and Washington Democrats.”

The Budget Control Act of 2011 required the CMS report within 90 days of the law’s enactment, but it took CMS nearly two years to deliver the report.

“Earlier this month, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office provided economic data that echoed what many small businesses have been telling us – that the health law is killing jobs and harming the economy,” Graves said. “The bad news keeps mounting and our nation’s best job creators are paying the price. Also this month, the National Small Business Association released a detailed report that the overwhelming majority of small companies would suffer health insurance cost increases, and now the federal government’s CMS agrees.”