Discussion focused on the effects of the Health Insurance Tax on small business owner at a June 27 sponsored by the National Federation of Independent Business.
According to a press release, the tax will cost small businesses and their workers $87 billion unless it is repealed by 2014.
“Small businesses represent the primary economic engine not only in New York, but across the country,” Mike Durant, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business/New York, said in the release.
“Amid a stagnant economy the challenges for small business are endless and the hidden Health Insurance Tax is front and center. Reigning in the exorbitant costs of health care is a top priority for NFIB and while all eyes are on Washington D.C. this week, this is not the time to wait and see. It is crucially important that Congress leaves nothing to chance and stands with small business to support legislation to repeal this unaffordable tax.”
The release claimed that while the tax was meant to affect primarily major insurance companies, it will more directly impact small businesses, especially those in New York. It could cost 1,600 jobs and $1.9 billion in sales in the state by 2021.
Nationally, the release stated, the tax is projected to cause the loss of almost 250,000 jobs, with more than half of those coming from small businesses, and nearly $30 billion retail dollars in the next decade.
Other projected costs of the tax, according to the release, include a $500 yearly decrease in pay for small business workers with a family insurance plan.
In May, several small business groups around the U.S. created the Stop the HIT Coalition, a group dedicated to repealing the tax. Since the group’s formation, both the Senate and the House have seen the introduction of legislation that would do just that.
For more about the coalition’s efforts, visit www.stopthehit.com