One in five Obamacare customers in 2014 were small business owners or self-employed, according to an Obama administration report seeking to highlight the impact of repealing the law.
The Treasury Department issued a report Thursday that showed about 1.4 million Obamacare customers were a small business owner or self-employed in 2014. That was the first year Obamacare’s marketplaces went online; when 8 million signed up for plans despite the botched rollout of healthcare.gov.
The report is the latest attempt by the administration to quantify who benefits from the Affordable Care Act. It was released the same day the Senate narrowly voted to pass a budget resolution that starts the Obamacare repeal process.
The Treasury report defined small business owners as those who had a minimum of $5,000 of business expenses and either $15,000 in gross receipts or $10,000 of business expenses.
The report also gave data showing the nine states that had the highest share of small business owners relying on Obamacare: Vermont, Idaho, Florida, Montana, Maine, California, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and North Carolina, as well as Washington, D.C.
In addition to the report, the administration is highlighting artists who are generally self-employed who benefit from the law.
“The [Affordable Care Act] has helped artists of all kinds get healthcare. No-cost preventive services make everyone healthier,” according to a tweet from the band “Superchunk.”
The effort comes as Republicans draw closer to their long-time goal of repealing the healthcare law.
The budget resolution directs House and Senate committees to start drafting repeal legislation that can use the reconciliation pathway, which enables legislation in the Senate to be approved via a simple 51-vote majority.
Republicans have said that repeal is desperately needed because of rising premiums and less competition.
“This is a rescue mission — and the reason we need to act, and act as quickly as possible, using the process the way it was supposed to be [used], is because we are on a rescue mission to prevent Obamacare from making things worse,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said during his weekly press conference Thursday.
