Small employers are in an interesting position right now because they do not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act to the degree that a larger employer does in terms of paying or playing. They are free to roam the country, so to speak, to figure out whether or not they want to continue to offer a health care plan. They do not have to offer a plan. If they do, they need to determine which health care plan they should offer and on what basis should it be offered. There are going to be new markets for small employers to consider in their efforts to get affordable health care coverage; however, these new markets still do not answer the questions as to whether or not they should actually even offer a plan. The decision comes down to the type of company an employer is, the labor market in which they are playing, whether or not they still need to recruit and retain employees and whether or not they currently offer coverage. If they currently offer coverage, the answer is going to be to continue to offer a plan to employees. If the company is in a rural area where these issues are not concerns, the employer may have a completely different work force of part-timers or people who are eligible for significant tax credits through the exchange. Those types of employers may decide it is not even worth offering a health care plan. A company has to consider who they are as well as examine their business and the competitive labor market.
