To start with, Cavagnaro says she's a Republican and not a fan of what she calls "forced health care" under the Obama Plan.

Then she says there's the monumental task of figuring out the tax code to get the credit.

"I have heard about it, yes, and I have not looked into it," she says. "I think it's too complex."

Finally Cavagnaro says the tax credit is just not a big enough carrot. She doesn't provide health insurance to her two part-time employees now; she would like to hire a full-time worker, she says, but can't afford it. The tax credit, she says, wouldn't be enough to offset the new expenses of health care costs on top of payroll taxes and disability insurance for another employee.

Right now the credits target businesses with no more than 25 low-wage workers. That's why Pipes thinks few businesses signed up in the first year. On top of that, the provision could actually discourage growth as the business could lose the credit if it adds employees or increases wages, she says.

"The President has actually done a disservice to the entrepreneurial spirit by the Affordable Care Act and in particular all of these taxes, subsidies, regulations," Pipes says.

For another business owner in downtown Stockton, though, the credit was a godsend. Lili Williams is managing director of OSC Computer Training. She already provides health insurance to her eight full-time employees but says it's been difficult to maintain that coverage.

"We have seen the costs of health care go up every year, anywhere between 10 and 15 percent," she says.

Williams says she has been struggling to survive the aftershocks of the recession and believes the tax credits will bring some relief -- saving thousands of dollars on her roughly $50,000 in annual health care expenses.

"I am thrilled about it because it does mean at least I get something back at the end of the year, that's money that I wasn't getting back," she says.

The government estimates so far under the program businesses have claimed an average tax credit of $2,700 per employee.

Of course the whole debate on this issue could change dramatically if the Supreme Court throws out the Affordable Care Act. And for some small businesses this uncertainty is reason enough to not apply for the credit, at least for now.