Jeff Brandt has owned Exile On Main St., a record store in Champaign, since it opened in 2004, and does not offer health insurance to his employees. But it is nothing personal.

His wife’s insurance plan, offered by her employer, is more affordable than if he tried to get one on his own, he said, and the size of his business — only two employees, including himself — at 1 E. Main St., prevents Brandt from getting too excited over the small business tax credit offered by federal health care legislation.

“My store will never have anywhere close to that many employees to where that would help us (more than alternatives),” he said Monday, admitting he is not very familiar with the legislation’s tax credit provision.

Almost four months after federal health care legislation was signed into law, many local small business owners are still skeptical of whether the law will influence them in significant ways, and are often unfamiliar with the exact content of the law.

This comes after the publication of a July 21 report that estimates the number of small businesses nationally and in Illinois that are eligible for the small business tax credit outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed by President Barack Obama in March 2010.

Released by Families USA, a national health care consumers organization, the report estimates that about 78.5 percent of small businesses in Illinois — about 159,900 out of 203,600 — are eligible for tax credits in the 2010 fiscal year. Nationally, about 83.7 percent of the country’s 4,798,300 small businesses — about 4,015,300 — are eligible, according to the report.

The new tax credit is meant to be an incentive for these businesses to either offer their employees health coverage or save them money if they already offer a plan.

From 2011 to 2013, small businesses with 25 or fewer full-time employees and average wages of $50,000 or less will be able to receive a tax credit up to 35 percent of what they paid for their employees’ health insurance plans, as long as the employer paid for at least 50 percent of these plans. The maximum credit will increase to 50 percent in 2014; those businesses with 10 or fewer employees and average wages of $25,000 or less will receive the greatest percentage tax credit.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about how many small businesses will qualify for tax credits, and this report clears up a lot of those questions,” John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of the non-profit organization Small Business Majority, said in a press release explaining the report’s results for Illinois. “We now have real numbers that show the vast majority of small businesses in Illinois will qualify for tax credits under the new law. That’s huge.”

Despite the significant number of eligible businesses, not all local small businesses will be affected equally under the law.

On Monday, That’s Rentertainment owner Geoff Merritt said like many businesses in Campustown, Rentertainment, 516 E. John St. in Champaign, is overwhelmingly staffed by already-insured student employees, which makes providing health insurance of little concern. According the Student Code, all students enrolled at the University must be covered either by the plan offered by the University or another plan with equal or greater coverage.

“From what I remember of it, it doesn’t affect us,” Merritt said of the legislation.

With about 15 employees between Rentertainment and his other business, Parasol Records, 303 W. Griggs St. in Urbana, Merritt said he used to offer health insurance to all employees who worked over 20 hours per week. But when the group plan became too expensive, he dropped it.

“I will certainly look into the new tax credits and re-evaluate our situation, but as long as we employ mainly students and people who are already otherwise insured, I cannot imagine we’ll change the way we do things,” he wrote in an e-mail in March, shortly after the health care bill was passed.

Still, students are not required to have insurance if they do not enroll for the summer semester, leaving some uncovered.

“A lot of the mom and pop businesses that are here in Champaign County — specifically, in Champaign and Urbana — employ students who are then uninsured over the summer if they’re not full-time students,” Josephine Underwood, downstate organizing coordinator for the Health Care Justice Campaign, said Monday.

Students not enrolled in the summer semester but who were enrolled in the University’s insurance plan the previous spring semester can apply to extend their coverage through the summer, but the deadline for this year has passed.

The Health Care Justice Campaign is a project working toward affordable and accessible health care for Illinois residents under the Campaign for Better Health Care, an Illinois partner of Families USA.

Underwood, who has been with the Health Care Justice Campaign for three years, said they would have liked to see a bill that does more than the current law to make health care more affordable, but she said it is a starting place.

“I do understand that there are some businesses that are going to fall through the cracks that don’t necessarily directly benefit from all of this,” she said. “But I think about some of the residual effects that they are going to experience by some of their partner organizations being able to provide insurance.”

She added that the law has ways to deal with some of its technical problems, such as allowing two half-time employees to count as one full-time employee when calculating the tax credit.

Ron Haddix, owner of Fiesta Cafe, 216 S. First St. in Champaign, said he employs about 15 people. He said he does not have a significant tax bill because his business does not make a great deal of money. Subsequently, he said he does not see the tax credit as a reason to start offering a health plan.

“I don’t see that it would be a big influence, no,” he said.

In the past, Haddix has offered his employees health insurance. However, he said his employees’ need for day-to-day money seems to outweigh the potential of investing in long-term health care benefits.

“Everybody wants it; and you tell them the price, and they don’t want it,” he said.