Before Obamacare takes effect next year many small businesses are planning to pay a penalty out of fear that offering health insurance coverage for all will be too costly, the Wall Street Journal reports:
Under the Affordable Care Act, employers with 50 or more full-time workers will be required to provide coverage for employees who work an average of 30 or more hours a week in a given month. An alternative to that mandate is for business owners to pay a $2,000 penalty for each full-time worker over a 30-employee threshold. […]
Nearly half, or 46 percent of 889 small-business owners surveyed by the Wall Street Journal and Vistage International say they don't know if providing health insurance will be more or less costly than facing penalties. More than three quarters, or 77 percent, polled online from March 11 to March 20, expect their health-care plans to cost more next year under the health-care law.
According to the Wall Street Journal, one flaw in the penalty option is that unlike health insurance it is not tax deductible.
However, to avoid the mandate some firms are "increasing employees' share of the premiums … [and] others say they will stay under the 50 full-time employee threshold or deliberately turn full-time workers into part-timers."