Vicki Head, co-owner of Hilton Head Auto Body, and about 40 other Beaufort County business owners turned their heels on sunny, warm weather on a recent Tuesday and instead piled into a dark conference room.

Their hope: figure out what new federal health care changes will mean for them and others.

"It's scary, and there's so much uncertainty about what it will mean for us," said Head, who provides health care coverage for her 24 employees at two Hilton Head locations. "Our employees work hard. They're on their feet all day. They're bent over. They need and deserve good coverage. But we need information on how to do it with all of these changes."

Business owners across the state echo the sentiment Head and others voiced during a seminar in Bluffton by Beacon Insurance Group, a local agency. With the reelection of President Barack Obama and talk of a quick overturn of federal health care reform muted, business owners are scratching their heads over the new health care law that many deem complicated and possibly costly.

There's still time for them to figure it out.

Some provisions have already taken effect, but the major changes will be phased in starting in 2014, according to state health care experts working with the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Those changes will create winners and losers, according to the president of Carolina Care Plan, one of the presenters at the seminar Head and others attended.

"We'll see premium rates that increase for some and will decrease for others," Carson Meehan said.

The number of employees and the age of those employees are among the factors that dictate just how much the new law affects a business, Meehan added.

SMALL BUSINESS VS. BIG BUSINESS

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Beaufort County business owners sweating new health care laws