ELMIRA, N.Y. — Health insurance premiums could soon rise for small business owners because of the new Health Insurance Tax or HIT.
Mike Durant of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, stopped in Elmira Wednesday to discuss the tax with small business owners.
HIT was signed into law last year as part of the Affordable Care Act. It will raise $87 billion in its first 10 years by raising taxes on health insurance companies. But that trickles down to businesses, which pick up a certain amount of health insurance costs for their employees.
Durant says small businesses owners and employees will be negatively impacted.
“We’re just trying to highlight what this issue is and that, ultimately, we think, it will lead to more people being uninsured, a higher cost of doing business and really be the anti-position the President was when he signed into law the Affordable Care Act,” Durant said.
The tax is set to go into effect in 2014.