Small Businesses Pursue Health Law 'Loophole'

NorthBay Adventure is the kind of small business that could be expected to buy medical insurance for workers under sweeping health-act rules taking effect in 2014. But executive director George Comfort says that’s not likely to happen.

Instead, NorthBay became self-insured last year, paying most of its workers’ health costs directly, a practice more typical of large employers. The decision to self-insure was about free choice, savings and what’s best for his company, Comfort says. But others see it as a threat to the Affordable Care Act. As more small employers like NorthBay avoid the health act’s requirements through self-coverage, small-business marketplaces intended to cover millions of Americans could break down and become unaffordable, they say.

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Source: Kaiser Health News (in collaboration with USA Today)