By Karen Axelton
Two national small business advocacy groups–the Small Business Majority and Main Street Alliance–have filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court opposing the lawsuit attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The organizations contend that the federal healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will benefit the country’s 28 million small businesses.
“We want to ensure the Supreme Court knows the Affordable Care Act includes a number of provisions that will help small businesses obtain more affordable health insurance,” said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority. “The best way to serve small business owners is to help them understand, participate in and benefit from the changes already underway, not tear down policies aimed at helping them.”
“The Affordable Care Act does a lot to help small businesses,” said Jim Houser, owner of Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Oregon and Main Street Alliance steering committee member. “It gives us more bargaining power, it holds insurers accountable, and it makes sure everyone is pitching in. This court challenge threatens to take all that away. There are plenty of ways to move forward on making healthcare work for small businesses – throwing out the ACA and forcing us back into the same broken healthcare system we were stuck with before is not one of them.”
The organizations contend that the Affordable Care Act’s small business tax credits, state health insurance exchanges, minimum medical loss ratio requirement and other provisions offer small businesses some relief from the costs that are hindering their growth and success. They believe repealing the law would once again mire small business owners in a system that threatens their competitiveness, discourages entrepreneurship and makes them unable to play their historical role as the country’s primary job creators.
What do you think of the advocacy groups’ efforts? Do you support or oppose the Affordable Care Act–and do you think it will help or hurt your small business?
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