[Kayakeenemeds]

Small businesses get a 35% tax credit for the costs of providing their employees with health insurance in 2013. The deduction rises to 50% in 2014.

That's a hell of a deal, and it will allow a lot of people currently hanging on to jobs just for the benefits to afford to move into starting their own businesses.


Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...LhI_story.html

No one [in London] has to make life decisions based on getting or keeping insurance.

This will be true for almost all Americans in 2014, if the Affordable Care Act is not repealed or unraveled in court. That’s when online health-insurance marketplaces called exchanges are supposed to be up and running in each state, offering private policies at reasonable rates to the uninsured — regardless of their medical histories — with subsidies available to help low-income buyers.

The Department of Health and Human Services this month released guidelines on how to set up exchanges, and more than half the states already are taking steps to build them. Once they’re up and running, you’ll be able to quit your job at Large Company X and start that plumbing or carpentry business, that mom-and-pop restaurant or barbershop, without putting your family’s health or finances at risk. You can open that dance studio, play in that band, live off savings while you write or paint or launch the tech venture that could make you the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

...

“I met a young entrepreneur recently who moved his business up to Massachusetts from Florida because, with a young family, he wanted to be able to start his venture without worrying that his children would not have health insurance,” Patrick said this spring at the Center for American Progress. “Just as our businesses rely on good roads, a modern electricity grid and access to broadband to thrive, having a strong health-support system is another piece of our infrastructure puzzle, making us an attractive destination for new businesses.”

Business leaders agree. The Massachusetts health law “has not hurt our competitiveness at all,” said Jim Klocke of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “It’s been positive for our economy because it addressed some pressing social issues.”

Jean Hammond, who launched a couple of start-ups before becoming a Boston-based angel investor in 50 young companies such as Zipcar, described what she called a “weird mix of insurance coverage and taking-care-of-people issues” that entrepreneurs dealt with before the new law.