PORTLAND, Maine, March 8, 2013 – Small business owners and advocates met today to discuss efforts to repeal the costly Health Insurance Tax (HIT) that was included in the president’s health care plan, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
During the event, small business owners from the Portland area discussed how this new tax would only exacerbate the challenges facing small business by further
raising the cost of health care for thousands of businesses and their employees in the state. Given the recent introduction of bipartisan legislation by Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Jim Matheson (D-UT) to repeal the HIT, attendees called for Maine’s representatives to join the fight in eliminating this harmful tax.
“Small businesses like mine have to be lean and operate with a very narrow margin of error,” said Steve Grimshaw of Falmouth-based Lighting Solutions. “Singling out small businesses for another tax increase makes me very worried about how I will purchase health coverage and the impacts this new cost will have on other small businesses in Maine.”
The HIT is a discriminatory tax born from the president’s health care plan, which would impose over $100 billion in new taxes on the small business community, their employees and the self-employed over a decade. The HIT could impact more than 140,000 Maine small businesses and 500,000 workers and families.
Under the law, the tax will be imposed almost entirely on what’s known as the “fully insured market,” where 87 percent of small business owners purchase their insurance. The tax would raise the cost of health insurance premiums for families by approximately $5,000 over the next decade according to an analysis by former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
“It is outrageous that at a time when local small businesses here in Maine are doing everything possible to help with our nation’s economic recovery, we would allow this community to be cornered by crippling new costs, like the HIT, which targets their ability to provide health coverage for their workers,” said David Clough, Maine State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business. “I am encouraged to see bipartisan support for this common-sense legislation to address the health
insurance tax, and I hope Maine’s Congressional leaders will get behind this cause.”
Today’s event was hosted by Maine small businesses owners and members of the Stop The HIT Coalition, an organization representing small business owners, their employees and the self-employed who support a repeal of the HIT and seek to educate policymakers about the impact of the pending 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 visitwww.StopTheHIT.com.