Rising health care costs could put a damper on Miller’s cheery tone, however. AmeriMark’s human resources director Greg Lyons says the Affordable Care Act is adding to the company’s costs. “It probably affects our premiums in the neighborhood of 8 percent,” he says.

Among the things that go into that 8 percent are a handful of fees and taxes that help pay for the health law. In exchange, consumers gain benefits like certain and .

AmeriMark, like most businesses, has been coping with rising health insurance premiums for years. This year, the company’s initial estimate from a broker was a 30 percent increase in the price of premiums if they stayed with the same insurance provider. Lyons said they shopped around, chose a new company and changed some of the policy’s benefits – such as increasing the deductibles and co-pays that employees pay as their contribution to their own health coverage. Such changes in plans have become nationally in recent years as annual increases in health care premiums have become normal.