Since its introduction in 2010, President's Obama's health care legislation has proved tremendously difficult for small businesses. The IFA and other small busienss lobbies have been lobbying with the Government to draft health-care legislation that is more small business friendly over the last two years, but the struggle goes on.
I thought it was worth pointing out a new feature on the New York Times small business blog You're The Boss where contributors interview small-owners to discuss their issues with health care. The first in the series was posted today and featured an interview with Ann Gish, who runs a company called Ann Gish Inc. that designs high-end bed linens in New York. Ms Gish employs 10 people in her business other than herself and her husband and reveals in the interview that the new health care laws are providing her with a major headache.
She says it has created much more work for her without making the least bit of difference:
Even simple tasks, she said, like adding or removing employees from the rolls, are complicated: “My husband, who does all of the C.F.O. stuff, has spent hours and hours and hours on this. And I spend a couple days a year on it. And I’m not stupid. I’ve started a successful business.”
Also her staff make too much money for her business to qualify for the health care tax credit for small business. Now Ms Gish may not run a franchise, but for what I read and hear, I'm quite confident that the new health care legislation creates similar headaches for those in the franchising community. I'd like to see the You're The Boss feature focus on franchised businesses and the relationship to the new health care plan in the coming weeks. Hopefully something can be done about this.