ObamaCare Might Make It Harder For Small Business To Get Loans

See Health Law Stirs Up Lending: Small-Business Borrowers Pressed to Show They Have a Grip on Insurance Costs by Maxwell Murphy, WSJ, 10-15-13. Excerpts:

"Small businesses are griping that the new U.S. health-care law is difficult to understand. Now some may have another complaint: If they don't have a handle on the law's cost and impact, they may have a harder time getting a loan.

To qualify for some loans, especially for growth capital, more companies are being required to provide assurances that they will be in compliance with the Affordable Care Act by 2015. The law will require businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health insurance to their full-timers or face penalties.

That might be tricky for restaurants, retailers and grocers, for example, which tend to have more part-time and transient workers than other types of businesses. For them, the calculations could fluctuate frequently, making decisions about health-care coverage difficult and profit projections unreliable.

"To raise capital, if you're in a growth mode, you want a [chief financial officer] who exudes credibility," says Christian Oberbeck, chief executive of Saratoga Investment Corp. SAR -1.95% , which provides loans to and invests in small businesses. "We've walked away from financing" a number of companies because they were unable to prove their compliance efforts would work or provide a sober view of the financial impact, he says."