At a field hearing on the “health care challenges facing Pennsylvania’s workers and job creators” held in Butler, PA yesterday, small business owners confirmed that ObamaCare is raising costs on job creators and holding back their ability to hire new workers.  Here are a few key points from the hearing, held by the Education & the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions:

• “The Uncertainty Is Part of the Reason That We Are Using Temporary Services … Rather Than Adding Additional Employees.” Patti-Ann Kanterman, Chief Financial Officer of Associated Ceramics & Technology, Inc, a family-owned business with 41 employees, said “as more and more provisions” of ObamaCare are enacted “the uncertainty of offering insurance to our employees will increase,” and that “the uncertainty is part of the reason that we are using temporary services to fill our open positions and working overtime with our current employees rather than adding additional employees.” (Testimony, 2/22/12)

• ObamaCare “Will Force Our Company” to Either “Artificially Deflate Worker Hours” or “Hire Fewer Workers.” “Defining full-time for health care purposes as 30+ hours per week,” as ObamaCare does, “will force our company to do either two things: Artificially deflate worker hours to keep them underneath the 30 hour threshold because we can’t afford the additional premiums [or] hire fewer workers as a result of the increased costs of health care forced on us,” said Will Knecht, President of Wendell August Forge, a family-owned business with 120 employees.  (Testimony, 2/22/12)

• “Waldameer…Would Be Out of Business.” Paul T. Nelson, owner & CEO of Waldameer Park, Inc., an amusement park employing 18 full-time employees and approximately 400 seasonal employees, said “the simple fact is that we cannot afford health insurance for 400 part-time employees, and Waldameer, one of the main engines of promoting the tourist industry in NW Pennsylvania, would be out of business, and no one would benefit from this situation.” (Testimony, 2/22/12)

• “There Are So Many Regulations, Insurances and Taxes That It Is So Hard to Keep My Head Above Water.” ”Lori Joint, Director of Government Affairs at the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA), said that the organization’s member companies “have been very clear in expressing their concern and uncertainty over the law and its potential implications and cost - causing many employers to hold off on plans for growth and investment in their business operations.”  Joint shared the experiences of several small business owners, including Elsie A. Mundkowsky, who says “I really don’t think that my business can handle much more out-of-pocket.  There are so many regulations, insurances and taxes that it is so hard to keep my head above water.” (Testimony, 2/22/12)

Pennsylvania small businesses are not the only ones struggling with the fallout of President Obama’s government takeover of health care.  A recent Chamber of Commerce survey found that nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of small business owners say “the recent health care law makes it harder for their business to hire more employees.”  Contrary to the promises on which the job-crushing health care law was sold, it has failed to bring down costs or protect coverage for millions of Americans.  Not surprisingly, several surveys show it’s not just small businesses, but the majority of Americans who continue to oppose ObamaCare – another one of President Obama’s policies that are making the economy worse.

House Republicans have kept their Pledge to America to repeal and defund ObamaCare, and will continue working to replace the law with better solutions that won’t negatively impact small businesses and their ability to put Americans back to work. See what else Republicans are doing to help create a better environment for private-sector job growth at jobs.gop.gov.