NEW YORK Rose Wang looks at her staff of 70 employees and wonders if shell have to lay off some of them to comply with the health care law.

The owner of Binary Group Inc., an information technology firm based in Alexandria, Va., is one of many small business owners who will be required to provide health insurance for her staffers under a provision of the law that goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. Wang already provides insurance, but she has struggled with premiums that have soared as much as 60 percent annually, so she requires employees to contribute to their coverage. Shes worried because she doesnt know how much shell have to pay under the Affordable Care Act.

Wangs worry is a gut-wrenching dilemma that many small business owners are concerned that they may face. Now that President Barack Obama has won re-election, the health care overhaul, which presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised to dismantle, is marching forward. Companies must decide before the start of 2014 what theyll do to comply with the law. Right now, no one knows how much the insurance will cost, and owners arent sure if theyd be better off not buying it and paying a government a penalty of $2,000 per worker. Some owners are even threatening to defy the law. The big challenge for most small businesses is that they just dont have enough information to make concrete plans.

If Wang cant afford it the insurance, she says that some of her staffers may have to go.

I would have to say, look, guys, youre family to me in many respects, but this family also depends on having the kind of cash flow available to keep the lights on and keep employing most of you, Wang says. It would have to come down to that.

Not providing insurance and paying the penalty is another alternative. Thats what were going to decide by 2014, if the math is so obvious its cheaper for us to do the $2,000 per head, she says.

The health care law generally requires that companies with 50 or more full-time workers provide health insurance for their staffers. If they dont provide any insurance, theyll have to pay the $2,000 penalty for each worker on their payroll. If they buy insurance, but it doesnt meet the governments tests for affordable coverage, theyll have to pay $3,000 for each worker whose coverage isnt deemed affordable. If that seems confusing, thats just the beginning. Theres a labyrinth of other details that include plans that can be grandfathered in and a maze of other fine points that small business owners are trying to decipher.

In some industries, owners are considering cutting employees hours to under 30 a week, which would take those workers out of the jurisdiction of the law. Restaurant owners are looking at that option after Darden Restaurants Inc. said in October it was going to try changing the mix of full-time and part-time workers at its restaurants including Red Lobster and Olive Garden. When full-timers leave, Darden will considering replacing them with part-timers, spokesman Rich Jeffers says.

Hurricane Grill & Wings, a restaurant franchise with five company-owned restaurants, is also thinking of lowering the number of hours that its servers and other hourly employees work. That would exempt them from having to be covered under the law. President Martin ODowd says the company would have to monitor the quality of its service and food to be sure theres no impact on customers if workers are unhappy with their shorter work-week. But hes not anticipating any problems.

Hurricane CEO John Metz recently said the company was considering adding a 5 percent surcharge to customers bills starting in 2014 to cover the costs of health care for full-time workers. But since the plan was reported in the news media and generated negative comments on some websites ODowd now says that it was hypothetical.

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Business owners face health care dilemma