The Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature legislation known to opponents and supporters alike as Obamacare, will almost certainly be on the chopping block in January. The law has been contentious, but millions of Americans have gained health insurance since it passed, including many entrepreneurs.
"As a citizen of D.C., it was so easy to arrange healthcare for my employees which saved me time, and therefore money," said Rebecca Yarbrough, founder of The Offline Society, a social connection startup based out of the 1776 startup incubator. "I don't have an HR department, so having the DC Healthlink online marketplace [created as part of Obamacare] has made my job so much easier.
Donald Trump made a point of declaring the ACA's upcoming execution in the days before the election, and with Republicans in control of both chamber of Congress, there won't be any meaningful resistance to his call for repealing the the law. That repeal won't go over well with some startup founders.
"All of the advantages from Obamacare are going to go bye-bye."
"[The ACA] made it cheaper to grow as a small business," said Giadha De Carcer, founder of D.C.-based legal marijuana industry analytics startup New Frontier Data. "All of the advantages from Obamacare are going to go bye-bye."
"The Affordable Care Act has allowed entrepreneurs who never would have been able to do so before, to leave big box companies with strong health benefits without the fear of being unable able to to to afford proper healthcare," said Sara Morgan, founder of Eleven Eleven PR, a boutique public relations firm specializing in startups. "I worry that losing Obamacare will make starting a company more difficult, especially for parents and spouses who have more than their own health benefits to worry about."
While Trump did pair his call for a repeal with a replacement plan in his speeches, the actual details of that replacement are mostly unknown at this point. Republicans in Congress have discussed a replacement plan since the ACA first passed, but the latest version is broadly a return to the pre-ACA system with a few tweaks like selling insurance across state lines.
"Getting rid of Obamacare almost incentivizes us not to grow so fast so we’re not hit by higher costs," De Carcer said. "Anyone starting a business at this point will have to allocate a higher percentage to benefits, and finding and retaining talent will be much more expensive and difficult, especially for early stage companies."
The exact shape of the healthcare landscape to come is almost impossible to predict at the moment. What is predictable is that a massive disruption to the system like repealing Obamacare means entrepreneurs will need to be even more careful as they plan for the new year.
"I choose to cover some healthcare costs for my employees [already] because I think it's the right thing to do," Yarbrough said. "My hope is that prices go down and the marketplace structure remains."
