The North Coast Chamber of Commerce serves to improve the quality of life in and around our community. The Chamber has nearly 300 members who work together to contribute in a positive way to the long-term economic stability of the area.
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PRESIDENT’S LETTER
To Our Members:
If you missed the Golf Outing on June 4, 2010 make sure to mark your calendar for next years outing which will be scheduled for June 3, 2011. This year’s outing was the largest event ever; by number of golfers, hole sponsors and event sponsors. We had an outstanding turnout of golfers, many that "call" themselves golfers and volunteers. Special thanks to the North Coast Chamber Golf Committee, chaired by Ray Frank. I know the golf committee has some new ideas for 2011 where even a non-golfer can have an opportunity to earn a "Hole-in-One" prize. Details to follow...
Some of the proceeds raised by the annual North Coast Chamber Golf outing is awarded to the Scholarship Fund. In 2010, the Scholarship Committee selected three outstanding high school seniors and provided a total of $4,500 towards their college education. Congratulations to Julia Sherwood Kopcienski of Avon High School, Chelsea Welch of Brookside High School and Jessica Schuster of Avon Lake High School. On behalf of the North Coast Chamber of Commerce we are proud of each of you for your accomplishments and wish you the best as you start your journey to determine the right career to benefit our community. Also, special thanks to Ray Gilles and the Scholarship Committee for taking the time to review all of the applicants and interview the candidates. With all of the great High School seniors, I’m sure it was a tough task to determine the recipients.
To recap some of our recent past events: On April 20th we enjoyed a Breakfast Before Hours at COSTCO. Everyone enjoyed getting the day started with some great food and early morning networking. Thank you COSTCO for your generosity and for opening your doors to our members. On April 21st we enjoyed a joint Business After Hours at Famous Dave’s in North Olmsted and the dollar drafts helped make the networking go smoothly. Joan Reidy and the staff at Avon Oaks Caring Community welcomed the chamber on May 18th to a great Business After Hours. What a tremendous facility that they offer to our aging community.
Monday, July 19th is the North Coast Chamber night at the Lake Erie Crushers Game. This will truly be a great night cheering on our 2009 Champions. Come join us and wear your "Crushers" gear to support the home team. Special discounted tickets will be available to chamber members.
The North Coast Chamber of Commerce webpage at www.northcoastchamber.com has a wealth of information and additional benefits that can help your business grow. We invite you to be an active member of our chamber.
I look forward to seeing you at the next Chamber event.
President
Health Care Reform: What Does It Mean For Your Business?
Like it nor not, health care reform is a reality. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. On March 30th, President Obama signed the Congressional health care “fixes” bill into law. The “fixes bill” further expands the already sweeping health care changes enacted the week before. Even with a law of more than 2,000 pages, there are more questions than answers in how the new system will work. Undoubtedly, it will take volumes of new regulations and several years before all of the questions are answered. In the meantime, here are the areas of most significant impact on Ohio employers:
- All plans will be required to provide dependent care coverage up to age 26, beginning September 2010.
- Plans cannot place annual or lifetime limits on the value of benefits received by any participant, effective September 2010 for annual limits and January 2014 for lifetime limits.
- Requires guarantee issue and renewability (beginning January 2014) and no pre-existing exclusions for children (effective September 2010).
- Requires all plans to cover certain preventative care without cost-sharing by the participants (effective September 2010).
- Provides tax credits to employers with no more than 25 employees and average annual wages of less than $50,000 that provide health insurance for employees. For tax years 2010 through 2013, provides a tax credit of up to 35% of the employer’s total contribution toward the health insurance premium for an employer with 10 or fewer employees that contributes at least 50% of the premium. The credit phases out as firm size and average wage increases.
- Provide grants for small employers that establish wellness programs, beginning 2011, and allows greater employee incentives under all wellness programs beginning 2014.
- Increases the Medicare tax rate by 0.9% on earnings over $200,000/$250,000 (individual/married) and imposes a 3.8% tax on unearned income for these same higher income taxpayers, beginning 2013.
The changes that promise to fundamentally alter the way employers purchase health insurance do not go into effect until 2014. Beginning January 1, 2014 the following changes are implemented:
- Requires all U.S. citizens to have qualifying health coverage with a phase-in of penalties for non-compliance. Provides tax credits for most people who earn under 400% of the federal poverty level and who do not have employer sponsored coverage.
- Creates state-based Health Benefit Exchanges, through which individuals and small businesses with up to 100 employees can purchase qualified coverage.
- Assesses employers with 50 or more employees that do not offer health insurance a fee of $2,000 per employee (excluding the first 30 employees).
- Assesses employers with 50 or more employees that do offer health insurance a fee if any of their employees opt out of the employer coverage and receive government premium tax credits to purchase insurance through the exchanges. The fee is the lesser of $3,000 per employee who receives government tax credits or $2,000 per employee.
Obviously, these are only the broad outlines of the changes that directly affect employers. Much more detail will emerge as regulations are developed. Contact Jerry P. Cline, Esq. with the North Coast Chamber for more information.
