Pub. 3 2013 Issue 3

14 AUTOMOBILE DEALER NEWS ILLINOIS www.illinoisdealers.com M any business people hoped the Supreme Court would strike down Obamacare, turn- ing it from an urgent problem into a nonis- sue. That hope is now gone. If you are a small business owner with more than 50 employees and you haven’t decided what you are going to do about Obamacare, now is the time to figure out your strategy. What Obamacare Means Today Some aspects of Obamacare are good. Nobody likes it when insurance companies refuse to insure someone because of a preexisting condition or put life- time policy caps in place. Getting a checkup without a copay, and being able to cover a child up to the age of 26, are also benefits. These aspects of the law are unlikely to go away. In addition, the new laws force insurance companies to be more transparent than has been required previ- ously: they have to explain why premiums are going up, and they can be barred from participating in the state exchanges if states find that they are raising premiums arbitrarily. Additionally, insurance companies can’t have too high an overhead. If they spend less than 80 percent of the premiums on actually providing medical care, they will now have to refund that money. What Obamacare Really Means to Your Business? The U.S. Supreme court upheld Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare) on June 28, 2012 in a 5-4 decision.