HOUSTON — Bill Lawrence, who had owned the Bubbles Hand Car Wash chain in Texas since 1991 and employed 290 people, said he had to sell off his carwashes due to the Affordable Care Act's employer penalties, a Newsmax.com story said.
The Nov. 5 story quoted Lawrence, who was interviewed on The Steve Malzberg Show, who stated, "It was a going, thriving business about a couple years ago when we started to understand what would be the implications of … the Affordable Care Act and digest how this was going to impact our business.
Lawrence said he came to the conclusion that he couldn't afford to pay penalties imposed on businesses by the Affordable Care Act.
"It was going to cost us, whether we provided the health insurance for everyone or not or whether they went into the exchanges and we paid the penalty, it was going to cost us around $400,000 a year, and that represented 60, 80 percent of our net profit," Lawrence said in the interview.
Lawrence said he would not venture into the business world again "until something happens that changes the climate in this country and the attitude of government toward small businesses."
PC&D ran an article on the Affordable Care Act in the July issue. To read that story, click here.
To read the Newsmax.com story, click here.
