Health insurance reform is the big issue in the United States right now, and many small businesses will still be wondering what affect the changes will have on them. The good news is that the reforms will bring the prices of health insurance quotes right down for small businesses, as well as cutting costs in other ways, and as a result small businesses are going to join the majority of working Americans in very much benefiting from the new system.

Under the old system, small businesses were often crippled by the cost of health insurance. Indeed, small businesses, despite making up something like ninety six percent of all businesses in the United States, tended to have to pay around eighteen percent more than big business for the same kind of protection, discouraging many from covering their employees at all. Fortunately, that is now set to change under the reformed system.

One of the ways in which the health insurance reforms will benefit small businesses will be to provide them with a tax credit that can make providing health care for their worker more affordable. It is believed that up to four million small businesses will already be eligible for the tax credit by the close of 2010, and by 2019 the Congressional Budget Office believes that it will be saving small businesses around forty billion dollars. The "hidden tax" that small businesses currently pay - which costs a thousand dollars for every family policy covering those lacking insurance - will be discontinued under the new system.

Another way in which small businesses are going to be better off under the new health insurance reforms is by preventing massive premium increases. In the past, a small business that has two of its workers fall ill could find itself hit with a massive health insurance price hike as a result. From now on, this kind of discrimination and unfair penalization will be illegal.

The new system will also create what is being termed a health insurance "exchange," where small businesses will be able to enjoy increased competition and purchasing power in the health insurance market, a luxury currently only afforded to big business. In the long term, this will have the impact of significantly lowering premiums, as well as cutting down on administration costs by making comparison between health insurance quotes (their benefits, costs etc) easier to assess.

Health insurance reform is going to benefit millions of Americans, and those either running or simply working for small businesses will be very much on the front line of those first in line to start receiving some of these long-awaited and necessary benefits.