Lincolnshire, IL (August 26, 2015) – Congressman Bob Dold joined local small business owners today in Lincolnshire 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.
“The Health Insurance Tax will force small businesses both in my district and across the state of Illinois to go out of business. This is unacceptable at a time when we need to prop up small businesses and do everything we can to get our economy back on track,” said Congressman Dold. Dold is a co-sponsor of the bill to repeal the tax.
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 will amount to $159 billion in new costs over the next decade, which will be 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.
“Politicians in Washington need to understand that every time there is a new tax and a new expense, it turns into a burden that is unsustainable for the business and for our employees. Small businesses cannot handle this influx of new expenses and we need Washington to fight for Main Street, not only in Illinois, but across the nation,” said Rick Lesser, partner at Lesser, Lutrey, McGlynn & Howe LLP in Lake Forest. “As a small business owner who has created over a dozen jobs in Lake County, I am thankful that Congressman Dold is fighting for small business owners in his district and across the state.”
Illinois is home to more than 1.1 million small businesses, which employ more than 2.3 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.
Congressman Dold is a cosponsor 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.
###
The Stop The HIT Coalition represents the nation’s small business owners, their employees and the self-employed who are actively working to repeal the Health Insurance Tax. Since the Coalition’s formation in 2011, it has grown to include more than 35 national organizations, representing millions of small business owners across the country. For more information, please visit www.StopTheHIT.com.