218 Bipartisan Members of Congress Support Repeal of Health Insurance Tax
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 22, 2015) – The Stop The HIT Coalition, a broad-based group representing the nation’s small business owners, their employees and the self-employed, is encouraged today by the news that 218 bipartisan Congressional cosponsors have signed on to support H.R. 928, a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives that seeks to repeal the burdensome health insurance tax, or HIT.
“The overwhelming support to repeal the HIT shows that Congress agrees that America’s small businesses should not be burdened with yet another costly tax with no benefit to show for it. We hope to see this support continue to grow for the sake of Main Street and the burgeoning economy,” said Amanda Austin, vice president of public policy at the National Federation of Independent Business.
The HIT is an often overlooked small business tax in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which will impose $159 billion in new taxes on the small business community, their employees and the self-employed over the next decade. The HIT does not sunset and is expected to cost each family approximately $5,000 in higher premiums over the decade according to an analysis by former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. This year alone the tax will collect $11 billion from Main Street.
The HIT would reduce private sector employment by between 152,000 and 286,000 by 2023, according to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation. Roughly 57 percent of these job losses will fall on small businesses. The survey also showed that the added tax would reduce U.S. real output (sales) in 2023 by between $20 billion to $33 billion.