Kiersten-Care: Using the Health Care Tax Credit to Take Care of Employees

Kiersten Firquain founded Bistro Kids in Kansas City, KS, seven years ago to provide locally sourced organic “kid-friendly” food to as many students as possible. While her chefs were cooking up healthy food for youngsters, she wanted to do something for her employees’ health. The health care law tax credit for small businesses, she says, made it possible to offer them health insurance.

“We talked to our chefs and employees and asked, ‘What’s something you would like from Bistro Kids?’ And one of the things that kept coming up was insurance,” Kiersten says.

Bistro Kids qualified for about $1,500 per year in tax credits under the health care law, the Affordable Care Act, which made a huge difference to a small business like hers. For one of her chefs, Kiersten says, health insurance means a $5 co-pay for a prescription instead of a $250 cost, which her chef would not have been able to afford.

 

“The small business tax credit means that we can take care of our employees. It means they can walk into a pharmacy and know they can afford to pay for medication to take care of themselves,” Kiersten says. “For us, the small business tax credit means being able to take care of our chefs and our employees so they can take care of our clients.”

The health care law’s tax credit for small businesses also helps Kiersten to compete for the best employees—and that means a more successful business.

“Everybody wants to have the best employees that they can have. Our chefs are phenomenal, the best in the industry, and because of the health care tax credit, we’re able to offer them benefits that they might not be able to get somewhere else.”

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• Kiersten-Care in Action: Tax Credits for Small Businesses
• Fact Sheet: Small Businesses and the Affordable Care Act
• Learn how the law makes care more affordable for employers, employees, and early retirees
• See all MyCare stories →