A large group of trade associations and business groups – including the American Bakers Association, American Hotel and Lodging Association, National Association of Convenience Stores, National Automobile Dealers Association, National Funeral Directors Association, National Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – have banded together into the Stop the Hit Coalition, working to repeal the health insurance tax (“HIT”) that is part of ObamaCare. They are promoting this YouTube video starring Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who is now the president of the American Action Forum, who says the $80 billion tax will cause people to lose their insurance, their doctor, and their money.

About 25 business groups have joined forces in an effort to repeal health care reform’s tax on health insurance companies.

This tax starts at $8 billion a year in 2014 and will rise to $14.3 billion in 2018. It was included in health care reform as a way to help pay for the legislation.

The business groups behind the Stop the HIT Coalition (HIT = health insurance tax) fear insurers will pass on the cost of this tax to their customers. That’s something small businesses can’t afford, they contend.

“For the small-business community, controlling the increasing costs of health insurance premiums has been the top concern for decades,” said Dan Danner, president of the National Federation of Independent Business, one of the coalition members. “This new tax will be almost entirely passed from insurers to small businesses and their employees, raising health care costs and increasing economic uncertainty for this vital sector.”

Other members of the coalition include theU.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Small Business Association, and trade groups ranging from the American Council of Engineering Companies to the Society of American Florists.

NFIB and the Chamber were on hand at the Capitol today for a press conference by Senator Jon Kyl, of Arizona, who unveiled legislation that would repeal the health insurance tax. Kyl’s bill also would repeal health care reform’s employer mandate, which requires businesses with 50 or more employees to provide insurance or pay a fee to the government. The legislation also would repeal health care reform’s restrictions on the use of flexible spending accounts.

Kyl said he remains committed to full repeal of health care reform, but “the reality is that President Obama will never allow that to happen as long as he’s in office.” His bill, dubbed the Small Business Health Relief Act, would at least highlight three parts of health care reform “that just kill small business,” Kyl said.

“Change is in the air,” said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Once it becomes clearer how health care reform is going to affect the insurance marketplace, “anything is possible” when it comes to rolling back the law, he said.

The coalition contends the health insurance tax will cost small-business owners and their employees $87 billion over a decade. A worker with a family plan will see their take-home pay drop by $5,000 over a decade as a result of the premium increases resulting from the tax, the coalition contends.

Not all small-business groups buy this argument. The Main Street Alliance, which supported health care reform, thinks the law’s new regulations over insurers will keep them from passing on this tax to their customers. The Department of Health and Human Services last week issued a regulation that subjects health insurance premium hikes of 10 percent or more to state or federal reviews. Another regulation will force insurers in the small-group market to provide rebates to their customers if they spend less than 80 percent of their premium dollars on medical care and quality-improvement activities. Both of these regulations should curb premium hikes, according to the Alliance.

Besides, the Alliance points out, insurers make plenty of money and can afford to pay higher taxes without socking it to their customers.

“Health insurance companies are reporting the biggest profits in their industry’s history,” said Alliance member David Borris, owner of Hel’s Kitchen Catering in Northbrook, Illinois.

Why would the Chamber and other groups advocating for small businesses go to bat for the insurance industry?

“This looks like another case of small-business identity theft-hiding behind small-business arguments to defend big insurance profits,” Borris said.