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ROCHESTER - Like many small business owners, Mitzi Robinson of Milton has been frantically trying to keep up with the fallout of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on small business owners.
Robinson, of Milton, is an owner of DMR Industries in Rochester, a contract manufacturer of precision-made metal and plastic components for industry.
DMR Industries, Inc. employs about a dozen people, two of whom are part time, she said.
Since DMR has less than 50 employees, it doesn’t have to provide group health insurance for its workers, but the company will help out its staff with their insurance premiums nonetheless.
She said for most of her full-time workers the company will pay half their premium less the subsidy, which they will likely get due to their income and family status.
With Obamacare subsidies are available for anyone whose annual income is up to 400 percent of the poverty level, which is set at $11,490.
So for those who qualify for the subsidy, Robinson will pay half of their premium after the subsidy payment is applied, or up to $300 monthly, she said.
“We don’t have to do that, but we will,” she said, adding that it’ll be an added business expense that they do for their employees.
Other business owners in the state are doing it another way, giving pay raises to employees equal to a portion of their health insurance premium under the ACA.
Robinson said a couple of key employees will stay with the company’s group plan receiving full benefits at no cost.
She thinks overall the company’s insurance costs will go down, because of several employees who will receive the subsidy because of their income level who in the past were charged higher premiums under the company’s group plan.
The only other impact the ACA had on their business was having to reduce two part-timers’ hours to 29 from 32, since the new threshold for group insurance consideration was listed at 30 hours in the ACA.
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