The National Federation of Independent Business has come out with guns blazing against the Senate health care bill, frustrated that it would not only not help small businesses, but would be an additional burden to them, making it harder to be profitable. They call it a “disaster for small business.”

Senior vice president of the nation’s leading small business organization, Susan Eckerly said this in a statement on their web site: 

“Small business can’t support a proposal that does not address their No. 1 problem: the unsustainable cost of healthcare. With unemployment at a 26-year high and small business owners struggling to simply keep their doors open, this kind of reform is not what we need to encourage small businesses to thrive.

“We oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act due to the amount of new taxes, the creation of new mandates, and the establishment of new entitlement programs. There is no doubt all these burdens will be paid for on the backs of small business. It’s clear to us that, at the end of the day, the costs to small business more than outweigh the benefits they may have realized.

“Small businesses have been clear about their needs in health reform; they have been working for solutions for over two decades. They have a unique place in this debate because of the exceptional challenges they face. They experience the most volatile premium increases, are the most cost-shifted market, see the most tax increases and have the least competitive marketplace. For all these reasons, they especially need reform, but these reforms can’t add to their cost of doing business. The impact from these new taxes, a rich benefit package that is more costly than what they can afford today, a new government entitlement program, and a hard employer mandate equals disaster for small business.”

As it stands, it truly is a disaster for small business, as very few firms will be helped by the tax credit (which will only be in place for two years). Overall, the small businesses that will be helped are those businesses with 10 or under workers, and those who have workers with low incomes. The problem there is these are probably the two types of small businesses that won’t offer health coverage in the first place no matter how much prices will be cut.

Hopefully this health bill disaster to everyone will be voted down and finally put to rest.