More Than 150 Cosponsor Legislation as Momentum for Repeal Builds
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 12, 2015) – The Stop The HIT Coalition, a broad-based group representing the nation’s small business owners, their employees and the self-employed, today thanked Representatives Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) for introducing legislation to repeal the small business health insurance tax (HIT). This follows the recent introduction of the “Jobs and Premium Protection Act 2015” in the Senate by Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
“With so many politically polarizing issues being debated on Capitol Hill today, providing relief from increasing health care costs for small businesses should not be one of them. We are encouraged by the bipartisan effort led by Representatives Boustany and Sinema to protect Main Street from a significant and unnecessary burden being placed on Main Street,” said Amanda Austin, vice president of public policy at the National Federation of Independent Business. “With more than 150 cosponsors already signed onto the House legislation, and over 25 cosponsors so far in the Senate, we hope our elected officials will move beyond party lines and do what is right for small businesses and the Americans they employ.”
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. This year alone the tax will collect $11 billion. Originally referred to as a fee on insurers, the HIT is actually a tax being passed onto consumers in the fully insured marketplace in the form of higher premiums. 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.
According to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation, the HIT would reduce private sector employment by between 152,000 and 286,000 by 2023. 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.