Tax credits in the health care reform law designed to offset health insurance premium costs mean that small businesses will be one of the first groups to benefit from the legislation, according to anew report from the Commonwealth Fund.

There are other provisions in the legislation that will help small businesses reduce the estimated 18 percent differential between the cost of health insurance for small and large companies, the report said.
These include establishment of state-based insurance exchanges that promise to lower administrative costs and pool risk more broadly, and creation of new market rules and an essential benefit standard to protect small firms and their workers, according to the report.

The Commonwealth Fund report projects that up to 16.6 million workers are in firms that would be eligible for the tax credit, starting this year through 2013.