U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth, is supporting three pieces of legislation aimed at reforming the Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010.
Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth, left, talks about reform proposals for the Affordable Care Act aimed at helping small businesses. Brunswick Mayor Ron Falconi listens to the proposals during a roundtable discussion at Brunswick Power Equipment on Tuesday.
Renacci said the taxes and reforms used to change the health care system have placed a burden on business owners.
“We continue to find things in the Affordable Care Act that hurt small businesses,” Renacci said Tuesday at Brunswick Power Equipment during a roundtable of local business leaders.
Renacci talked about a proposal he plans to introduce that could reform the requirements of the Health Insurance Tax. Health insurance companies are assessed a tax based on their “net premiums” written, and the larger the health insurance company’s market-share, the higher their annual tax.
The tax has been passed on to business owners in premium costs, Renacci said. He also said the added regulations and taxes on the already unpredictable cost of health care make it hard for businesses to budget their health care costs.
“Small businesses are hit with regulations and the HIT tax and they don’t know what’s going to happen next,” he said. “They can’t operate with that uncertainty.”
Renacci said he also backs two other proposals aimed at reforming the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare:
- House Resolution 863, known as the Simplifying Technical Aspects Regarding Seasonality Act, or STARS Act, would amend the IRS definition of seasonal employment. Renacci said businesses are not required to provide health care to part-time or seasonal employees; however, some seasonal workers are included in the full-time count, adding to the cost of hiring those workers.
- Another proposal would lessen the penalties on hospitals for patient readmissions. Under the ACA, hospitals who have patients readmitted are assessed a fine. Renacci said that’s understandable when the hospital is at fault, but said often patients with chronic conditions not under control are readmitted and the hospital is fined unfairly.
“If they go home and later they get sick again, it’s not always the hospital’s fault,” he said.
Renacci, who has voted more than 30 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said it makes sense for Republicans to come forward with reform proposals, though he’s skeptical President Barack Obama will support reform and said the longer the law remains on the books, the harder it is to repeal or replace it.
“Every year that passes, the deeper and deeper the roots get and the harder it is to reform,” he said.
The reform proposals resonated with Marlin Palich, general manager of the Northwood Realty Service in Cortland. He said he struggles to provide a decent health care plan to his employees every year.
“The plan we offered was not as good as in the past, but the rates we pay as a company have gone up,” he said.
Palich said the costs have increased so much that his company debated whether it would be cheaper to pay the penalty and not offer insurance, but in the end, opted to provide health care.
“We did offer health care, but the fact that we even discussed paying the penalty instead, shows how bad the cost is,” he said.