Matthew Yglesias is on vacation.
The National Federation of Independent Business, a lobbying organization and the named plaintiff behind the Supreme Court case that upheld the individual mandate, has released a survey that says small businesses that plan to add health care coverage outnumber those planning on dropping it. According to Reuters, the organization “surveyed 921 businesses, with from two to 100 employees.”
The report also says that health care costs are up, though, according to Businessweek, an NFIB researcher admitted he wasn’t sure how much the increase was tied to the Affordable Care Act: “How much is due just to rising costs normally and how much is due to the ACA, I couldn’t untangle that.”
Just a reminder: all that hype about companies cutting employees’ hours to under 30 per week turned out to be wrong too.
For the record, cogent criticism of law is good. And in today’s climate, we should all be happy that NFIB has the integrity to release surveys that don’t back up their own case, and honestly answer questions that undermine their political leanings—even if their PR department hasn’t gotten the memo. Hopefully this report will help inform everyone’s opinions.
Here’s the full report. They hid the good news on page 26: “If small employers follow those plans, the net proportion of them offering would rise, breaking a decade-old trend.”
