Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), continues to cause concern for small business owners and their employees. Though much confusion surrounds the implementation of the new healthcare mandate, owners must now comply with the law or face penalties.

President Obama speaks about important reforms in the Affordable Care Act.

Business owners let out a collective sigh of relief when the Obamacare enactment was postponed to 2015. They got the extra year they were seeking and now they must follow it or accept the consequences for failing to do so.

Get Your Small Business Financing in Order for Obamacare

Whether or not Obamacare is good or bad for small business remains to be seen. The answer to this controversial question relies mostly on who you ask. Suffice it to say the ACA mandate has proved good for some and bad for others. Let’s review a few new rules.

Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees now have the option of having their employees purchase affordable but high quality healthcare insurance plans through Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). In this way, companies with less than 50 employees are not penalized for not offering their own healthcare plan to workers. Despite the initial confusion surrounding this part of the mandate, small businesses in this category may actually save a considerable amount of money. This is because the small business financing of healthcare plans has historically been a high cost to these businesses.

Obtain Cash to Pay for Group Plans, or Penalties, with Invoice Factoring

On the flip side, businesses with 100 or more full-time employees must comply with ACA’s new mandate that they provide quality healthcare plans to employees or risk hefty fines. Yet in an ironic twist, some companies that fall into this category are finding it less expensive to pay the fines than to comply with the law. Many of argue that they lack the small business funding necessary to purchase expensive, ACA-compliant group plans for their employees.

Small businesses that are in need of capital to comply with the ACA – or pay the fines – can get the cash they need with invoice factoring services. By factoring receivables, businesses can improve their cash flow freeing up the cash that is tied up in current invoices. With a more robust cash flow, businesses will have more available capital to put toward purchasing these new healthcare plans.