Senate ACA ‘Repeal Only’ Bill Would be a Catastrophe for Small Businesses

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) yesterday released a report on the potential consequences of the U.S. Senate’s proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without providing a replacement plan, a move that would be an unmitigated disaster for small businesses.

According to the CBO estimate, the “repeal only” legislation would result in 17 million Americans losing health coverage in 2018, and a total of 32 million losing coverage over ten years. What’s more, the proposal would increase premiums by a whopping 25 percent on average next year and would end Medicaid expansion, which covers millions of small-business employees. The CBO also estimated that after a two-year implementation delay included in the plan, insurance companies would likely abandon the ACA marketplaces, leaving half of the population with no individual coverage options by 2020. This catastrophic scenario would be extremely damaging to entrepreneurship in this country, since many aspiring small business owners will not start a company if they can’t buy their own health insurance.  

That the U.S. Senate would even entertain such a reckless measure speaks volumes about its politically motivated zeal to destroy the ACA, as well as its disregard for small businesses. The ACA has unquestionably benefited small firms by lowering their costs, expanding their access to health coverage and allowing aspiring entrepreneurs with pre-existing conditions to purchase their own healthcare so they could finally go into business for themselves. The Senate must immediately abandon this irresponsible idea and instead work on a bipartisan solution to improve the ACA so that America’s job creators can maintain their place as a vital part of our economy.