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Small businesses are the backbone of our nation’s economy.

What is Health Care Reform?
On March 23, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Shortly after, the bill was amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which became law on March 30. Together, the two bills comprise comprehensive health care reform.

Health care reform is intended to benefit small businesses and their employees by:

• Expanding coverage options
• Increasing purchasing power
• Lowering costs
• Giving back control over health care

The $940 billion health care overhaul is expected to extend insurance coverage to
32 million people, in part by requiring every American to have insurance, offering tax credits to help them buy coverage and extending Medicaid to those earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The impacts of health care reform to small
businesses and their employees are multifaceted and will take place over a number of years.

TriNet Provides Quality, Choice and Service to Address Health Care Reform

Benefits are a key component of a competitive compensation strategy for all small businesses. Navigating the complexities of health care reform, while optimizing an investment in benefits, requires an effort that few small businesses can address—designing a differentiated benefits offering, administering benefits
coverage, ensuring regulatory compliance, and taking full advantage of available tax credits.

TriNet’s commitment to providing high quality health benefits to our clients is unaltered by health care reform. TriNet provides the value of a single-source solution
to navigating the new law, and ensuring compliance with health plan designs, reporting, eligibility and tax implications.

TriNet focuses on the following areas for a comprehensive benefits offering:

Quality: TriNet works with the best national insurance partners, such as Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Kaiser, Aetna, and key regional providers. TriNet’s plans meet or exceed many of the design requirements for reform compliance, such as 100% guaranteed issue with first-day coverage and no exclusions.

Choice: Benefits are an investment, and both employers and employees require a range of options to maximize that investment towards business and lifestyle objectives. TriNet presents choices for employers in designing a benefits investment strategy tailored to provide the most value for the company and workforce—including low minimum funding levels, multiple funding strategies, and multiple funding groups. Employees enjoy a range of choice to match their current lifestyles, a range available in only 1% of small companies in the United States.

Service: TriNet provides tools and guidance to model plan choices and funding options so you can make the best, most informed decisions. Our Human Capital Consultants support you through the benefits decision process, delivering expertise tailored to the unique needs of small businesses.

Timeline of Important Provisions
The new health care legislation is more than 2,300 pages long and will take nearly a decade to roll out in full. The following summary focuses on provisions affecting the small business community including expanded health coverage, taxes, fees and reporting requirements.

HEALTH CARE REFORM PROVISIONS
Coverage & Credits
2010	For tax years 2010 thru 2013 – tax credit available for small businesses of up to 35% of employer contribution toward employee health insurance premium, if the employer contributes at least 50% of the total premium cost.
	Young adults are able to stay on their parents’ insurance policy until the age of 26.
	Temporary reinsurance program is created to help companies maintain health coverage for early retirees, between the ages of 55 and 64.
2014	Create exchanges where people without employer coverage, as well as small businesses, can shop for health coverage. Insurance companies barred from denying coverage to anyone with pre-existing condition.
	Medicaid expands to all Americans with income up to 133% of federal poverty level.
	Subsidies for small businesses to provide coverage increase. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees and average annual wages of less than $25,000 receive tax credit of up to 50% of employer’s contribution. Tax credits phase out for larger businesses.
2017	Businesses with more than 100 employees can buy coverage on insurance exchanges, if state permits.
Taxes & Penalties – Employers
2014	Employers with more than 50 employees who don’t provide affordable coverage must pay a fine if employees receive tax credits to buy insurance. Fine is up to $3,000 per employee, excluding first 30 employees.
2016	Penalty for those who don’t carry coverage rises to 2.5% of taxable income or $695, whichever is greater.
2018	Excise tax of 40% imposed on health plans valued at more than $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage.
Taxes & Penalties – Employees
2013	Employees earning more than $200,000 per year (and couples who bring in more than $250,000) will pay a higher Medicare tax – 2.35% of wages, up from 1.45%.
2014	Requirement begins for most individuals to have health insurance. Subsidies begin for lower and middle-income people. Individuals at 133% of federal poverty level pay maximum 3% of income for coverage, while those at 400% of poverty level pay up to 9.5% of income. (Current poverty level currently is $22,000 for a family of four.)