With a convoluted struggle to pass national health care reform finally finished, small business owners say they are absolutely certain about one thing: They have no idea what it all means.

“I don’t know what it’s going to do to us. I don’t have a clue,” says Jim Everett, owner of Print Imaging Group. “I don’t feel bad about not knowing, because I don’t think our legislators who voted for it know anything about it.”

Seventeen years ago, Everett started his commercial printing business in the metro. Every year after, he says he’s worked hard to provide benefits for his 16 employees. Now, with a national health insurance system slated to move toward mandated coverage for all, he and his fellow business owners are wondering if the competitive-benefits advantage may be lost.

“There’s been a lot of times where we certainly, as a business, couldn’t afford to do it, but we continued on and got through those lean times because we were always under the assumption that that’s what we needed to do to get good employees and keep good employees,” Everett says. “If everybody is forced to do it, what do I have to offer other than people liking working here? When it comes down to those benefits that gave us a distinct advantage over our competition, that portion is gone.”

Darrell Markwell says he’s always felt the same toward his 52 employees at Markwell Paving. In business for nearly 40 years, he says his company has always struggled with the health-care question.

“We kind of feel like it’s an evolving animal, and we’re not sure where it’s going to end up,” says Markwell, noting that one of the problems with his industry is that even though his company tries to provide coverage, not everyone wants to pay for it. “When you’re young, you kind of feel like you’re bulletproof and you’re not going to get sick. Even though we pay a substantial portion of it, they’re just not interested in taking it.”

THE RULES
The little information that has trickled out has been promising. As a small businessman, Everett says the appearance is that there should be some tax benefits as early as this year.

Movement has been slow toward implementation in any area, but in April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began the first steps toward establishing temporary high-risk insurance pools. At the same time, the Internal Revenue Service mailed out more than 4 million postcards to small businesses in its initial campaign to get the word out concerning tax credits associated with the new legislation.

For tax years 2010 to 2013, the maximum credit is 35% of premiums paid by eligible small business employers and 25% of premiums paid by eligible employers that are tax-exempt organizations. The maximum credit goes to smaller employers — those with 10 or fewer full-time equivalent employees — paying annual average wages of $25,000 or less.

Eligibility rules are based in part on the number of equivalent full-time employees, not the number of employees. Businesses that use part-time help may qualify even if they employ more than 25 individuals. Unfortunately, the credit is completely phased out for employers that have 25 FTEs or more or that pay average wages of $50,000 per year or more.

Coverage for all is a great slogan, but Markwell would like to see it truly play out that way.

“Our concern is if they were to say we’re going back to ground zero, and this is the only insurance available, the president gets it, members of Congress get it, the railroad unions get it, then maybe it would work,” he says. “I think the way it’s carved out, it probably doesn’t have much of a chance. It’s such a problem for small business people to wade through what we have now. We don’t have that many insurance companies we can go to. I think the last time we renewed we had two. I’d love to be in a business where I only had one other bidder. It would make life pretty easy.”

Matt Robison, The State Chamber’s Small Business and Workforce Development vice president, has pored over the legislation and been in touch with business owners around the state. He finds most, if not all, are just scratching their heads.

“That’s the conclusion they’re coming up with,” Robison says. “Until rules and regulations are drafted, we really don’t know the true implication of how this health care bill will apply to small businesses.”

He cedes that business owners will pay special attention to any penalties that would apply for not offering comprehensive health care and would likely pay a lower penalty than a higher insurance premium. The State Chamber supports maintaining the private insurance industry, while opening the market for companies to have greater access across state lines.

“We always try to be optimistic,” Everett says. “It doesn’t pay to be much of anything else.”

photo Jim Everett of Print Imaging Group. Photo/Mark Hancock