Local Impact of Healthcare Reform Proposal

We've been hearing a lot of talk about what President Obama's healthcare reform could cost Americans.  But you may be asking yourself, "What about me, here in the Capital Region?"

CBS 6 Anchor Jerry Gretzinger reached out to a New York city firm called The Tax Club, which has been doing a lot of research into the costs associated with the current healthcare proposals, and he asked if they had some information specific to the capital region.

The director of tax operations, Gary Milkwick, has already determined who would be most affected.

Small business owners and their employees.

Milkwick says the average small business owner has 9 employees and a payroll of $450,000 which includes a $60,000 salary for himself.

If the small business owner does not offer health insurance to his employees and does not have insurance himself, here's what will happen:

The business will have to pay a penalty of 36 thousand dollars for not offering health insurance and the owner will personally pay a penalty of almost 11 hundred dollars for not having coverage of his own.

If you deduct those penalties from the owners salary it leaves just under 23 thousand dollars.

Milkwick says, in most cases, that would result in a business having to lay off one or more of its employees.

Milkwick and The Tax Club has offered to keep looking into the upstate costs associated with the President's proposed healthcare reform for CBS 6 and when he contacts us with more information, we'll pass it along to you.

You can learn more about The Tax Club by visiting their website: www.thetaxclub.com