Gender May Be Key To ACA Impact On Small Biz

How is the Affordable Care Act affecting small business owners in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area?

The answer may depend on the gender of the workers they employ.

That, at least, is the tentative finding of a survey of local business owners conducted by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

When asked how the Affordable Care Act was impacting them, 30.5 percent responded “negatively” or “very negatively,” while 23.9 percent responded “positively” or “very positively.” (The rest—not quite half—were either unaffected or unsure.)

But Chamber president Aaron Nelson says a closer look at the responses reveals something interesting.

“Some of that is about the neutralizing of men and women, (who) cost differently in the old world and cost the same now,” he says. “So if you had a predominantly younger female staff, your rates likely go down – (but) with a predominantly male staff…your rates could go up. So gender has had a real impact on cost.”

Nelson says auto body shops, in particular, have reported their health care costs going up—while the Chamber itself, with a mostly-female staff, has seen its costs decline.

Additional results from the survey are available at www.slideshare.net/carolinachamber/2014-economic-outlook-briefing (also the source of this image). As seen here, there’s only a slight lean towards the ACA having a “negative” effect if severity is not taken into account, but that changes if severity is considered: a far greater percentage of respondents reported a “very negative” effect than a “very positive” effect.

Nelson presented the results of the survey at last week’s annual Economic Outlook Briefing at the Sheraton Chapel Hill.

‹

Trump Says He Will Renew Efforts to Replace ‘Obamacare’ if He Wins a Second Term

Written by JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER Former President Donald Trump threatened over the weekend to reopen the contentious fight over the Affordable Care Act after failing to repeal it while in the White House, saying he is “seriously looking at alternatives” if he wins a second term. Trump’s comments drew rebuke from Democratic President […]

Health Care Is Focus as Barrett Supreme Court Hearing Opens

Senate Democrats branded Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a threat to the Affordable Care Act and many Americans’ health care Monday at the start of a fast-tracked hearing that Republicans are confident will end with Barrett’s confirmation to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before Election Day. In a competing effort to approvingly define the 48-year-old Barrett, who […]

PPP: Americans Opposed On Healthcare And HB2, Split On Impeachment

When it comes to healthcare, Americans are surprisingly united against the GOP. (On Neil Gorsuch, we're unsurprisingly apathetic.)

SCOTUS Keeps Affordable Care Act Subsidies

The Supreme Court has issued a 6-3 ruling allowing subsidies to continue to be offered in states that did not establish their own marketplace. You can read the full opinion here.*** The U.S. Supreme Court will release a decision within the next few days that may affect more than half a million North Carolinians […]

In NC, Did Cutting Benefits Really Cut Unemployment?

The answer may be yes--but economist Mark Vitner says it's "not a success story" either way.

A Historic Shutdown Is Over. It Leaves No Winners and Much Frustration

The longest government shutdown in history has come to an end, with almost no one happy with the final result.

Senate Takes First Step Toward Ending the Government Shutdown

The Senate took the first step to end the government shutdown on Sunday after a group of moderate Democrats agreed to proceed without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies.

US Government on Brink of First Shutdown in Almost 7 Years Amid Partisan Standoff in Congress

Written by MARY CLARE JALONICK, LISA MASCARO and STEPHEN GROVES WASHINGTON (AP) — A partisan standoff over health care and spending is threatening to trigger the first U.S. government shutdown in almost seven years, with Democrats and Republicans in Congress unable to find agreement even as thousands of federal workers stand to be furloughed or laid off. The government will shut […]

N. Carolina Legislators Reach Medicaid Expansion Deal

Written by GARY D. ROBERTSON North Carolina legislative leaders announced Thursday an agreement to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults through the Affordable Care Act. The deal, which likely won’t be voted on until later this month, marks a milestone for Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed expansion for a decade […]

Medicaid Expansion Breakthrough Within Reach in N. Carolina

Written by GARY D. ROBERTSON After a decade of vigorous opposition, most North Carolina Republicans have now embraced the idea of expanding the state’s Medicaid program to cover hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults. Legislative approval finally appears within reach. During the General Assembly session that ended July 1, the GOP-controlled House and Senate passed separate, bipartisan measures […]

›