Obamacare Will Hit Bottom Line Say Business Owners

Ryan Saylor with The City Wire takes a look at how some local businesses in the Fort Smith region are preparing for elements of the Affordable Care Act.

One company, the Fort Smith Area Agency on Aging led by former GOP State Rep. Jim Medley, has decided to reduce employee hours so that a number of workers won’t qualify for health insurance.

“We currently have 500 employees, home health aides and drivers. Now all of them are working 28 hours a week maximum. The mandate is if they work 30 hours or more, you have to provide insurance,” Medley said.

Another business owner, McDonald’s franchisee Michael Hadley, expects to absorb the costs associated with additional health insurance by raising prices.

“Everything is going up (at all types of fast food restaurants). We have to raise prices as we can to keep up with commodities and now we have this extra cost. It is going to be a huge expense,” Hadley explained.

Part of Hadley’s decision to likely raise prices instead of cutting employee hours comes down to employee retention.

“If we don’t take care of our employees, someone else will and the last thing we want to do is have someone else steal them.”

You can access the full report here.