Baton Rouge, LA (May 8, 2015) – Congressman Charles W. Boustany, Jr., M.D. (R-South Louisiana) and Congressman Garret Graves (R-Baton Rouge) joined small business owners today in Baton Rouge 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.
“We have got to do more to empower small businesses to create jobs, to create value, to grow this economy. That’s where the growth is going to come from and I believe that repealing this tax is a very important step in going forward, ” stated Congressman Boustany. “We have got to stop the HIT. The HIT is devastating to business.”
Congressman Graves added, “We’re making American small business uncompetitive on these global markets by making it more expensive for us to do business in the United States by complying with these onerous fees and taxes that Obamacare has put in place.”
The HIT is an often-overlooked tax in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that 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.
Local businessman Clay Pinson told both Congressmen, “We are right at the 50 full time employee count and so it has slowed our expansion. We’ve been expanding in the last few years but we’ve been rationing that down trying to stay close to that 50 full time employee limit and in addition to making hiring decisions we are looking for more part time employees.”
Louisiana is home to more than 414,000 small businesses, which employ more than 875,000 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.
Congressman Boustany is the lead sponsor of H.R. 928, a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would repeal the HIT and permanently relieve small businesses of this burdensome tax.