Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124sponsored by BUSINESS TIP ThereisalullofsortsinObamacare angst these days. No momentous Supreme Court decisions in the offing. No serious repeal efforts in Congress. It even seems to have faded on the campaign trail. And so far businesses have weathered the initial stages of The Affordable Care Act ACA fairly well. Six years after passage the predicted exodus from employer- provided coverage has not mate- rialized. In fact according to the RAND Corporation of the 16.9 mil- lion newly-insured people between September 2013 and February 2015 the largest source of new cover- age was employer-sponsored plans1 And among companies with 50 to 499 employees some surveys show 99 offer health insurance to employees.2 Even the smallest employers those with fewer than 50 employees reported an increase in the number of companies offering health insurance from 51 in 2013 to 61 in 2015.3 Does this mean the fear and loath- ing of the ACAObamacare were overblown No probably not. These numbers may simply reflect the fact that health insurance continues to be a valued benefit to attract and retain talented employees. Companies still want to maintain coverage despite the costs and complexities added by the ACA. These numbers also do not look at the extent to which the ACA has skewed business decision-making. Some companies have refrained from hiring additional people to stay below the 50-employee thresh- old or cut worker hours to lower the number of full-time employees. Keeping the headcount low through outsourcing is a prevalent and often necessary small business strategy that can be expected to continue. The impact on individual compa- nies or the economy as a whole is difficult to measure but unques- tionably this has added to the anxi- ety over Obamacare among small businesses. Yet on the whole has the busi- ness community simply adapted The Affordable Care Act is this the calm before the storm By Pat OConnor Kent OConnor Washington D.C. 26 TileLetter June 2016