Senate Health Bill Remains a High-Cost Minefield for Small Business

America's small businesses, the backbone of the U.S. economy, will take a direct hit from Obamacare, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

The SBE Council says the latest version of the Senate health care bill continues to ignore the plight of U.S. small businesses, and instead burdens them with additional taxes and regulations that will drive business costs higher.

"Rather than moving in a direction that heeds the concerns of small business, the Senate health bill imposes an even higher tax burden on our sector while retaining other tax, regulatory and compliance measures that will drive business and health coverage costs higher," SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan in a prepared statement.

According to SBE Council, the "manager's amendment" put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid raises the Medicare payroll tax higher (from 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent), and exposes small businesses in the construction industry to a punishing employer mandate that will cripple this already hurting sector. The bill singles out the construction industry by not exempting businesses in this sector from the "play-or-pay" employer mandate that other firms with 50 or fewer employees are exempt from (although it does exempt construction firms with five employees or less). The latest Reid bill also increases the individual mandate penalty/tax, which will hit the self-employed, and maintains an array of other tax hikes and regulatory requirements that will drive up the cost of health coverage for small business.

Read the full SBE Council release at the link below:

Senate Health Bill Remains a High-Cost Minefield for Small Business