3. More importantly, the credit is temporary, but health-care costincreases are permanent. When the credit ends, small businesses will beleft paying full price. They'll also be forced to deal with all sortsof new taxes, fees and mandates buried in this 2,000-page law.
Oneof these new taxes is a so-called health insurance fee. It's a massive$8 billion tax (that escalates to $14.3 billion by 2018) on insurancecompanies based on their market share. This tax will be paid almostexclusively by small businesses and individuals because the lawspecifically excludes self-insured plans, the plans that most bigbusinesses and labor unions offer, from having to pay the tax.
Whilethe health insurance fee was designed to "go after" largehealth-insurance companies, the reality is that insurers aren't simplygoing to absorb this new tax; it will be passed on to customers.Specifically, it will be passed on to the plans that 87% of smallbusinesses and individuals buy.