Sixth District Congressman Diane Black (R-Gallatin) joined local small business owners on Thursday, April 9, in Cookeville to discuss how the health insurance tax, or HIT, is impacting local businesses and employees.
The event was hosted by the Stop the HIT Coalition, a broad based group representing the nation’s small business owners, their employees and the self-employed.
“Businesses have to make decisions, and for every cost that is put upon a business, they have to make a decision about how many employees they keep or how they will change the health insurance that they provide,” said Congressman Black in a press statement. “This is definitely a hit on both business and employees.”
The HIT is an often-overlooked tax in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that Stop the HIT claims significantly drives up health insurance costs for millions of small businesses. The tax amounts to $159 billion in new costs over the next decade, which is almost entirely passed on to small businesses and the self-employed who purchase coverage in the fully insured marketplace. The tax raises the cost of health insurance premiums for families by approximately $500 a year, according to an analysis by former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
Kevin McCaleb with J & S Construction noted, “As a small business we are really pleased that Congressman Black has taken a lead on trying to repeal this burdensome tax initiated through the ACA. We truly appreciate her efforts and in particular coming to our city to listen to our concerns.”
Tennessee is home to more than 566,000 small businesses, which employ more than one million workers. According to research by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation, the HIT will jeopardize between 152,000 to 286,000 private-sector jobs across the U.S. by 2023, and reduce real GDP by as much as $20 billion to $33 billion over the same period.
Congresswoman Black is a cosponsor of H.R. 928, a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would repeal the HIT permanently.