Congresswoman Graham and Florida Small
Business Owners Discuss the Impact of the Health Insurance
Tax
Tallahassee, Fla. (August 26, 2015) – Congresswoman Gwen Graham joined local small
business owners today in Tallahassee to discuss the health insurance tax, or
HIT, and its impact on local businesses and employees. The forum was co-hosted
by the National Federation of Independent Business/Florida and the Stop the HIT
Coalition, a broad based group representing the nation’s small business owners,
their employees and the self-employed.
The HIT was included in the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and 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.
Congresswoman Graham 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.
“I co-sponsored H.R. 928
to repeal the health insurance tax, because a tax that disproportionately
targets small business is harmful to employers, employees and to North
Florida,” said Congresswoman Graham. “When the healthcare law was passed, the
American people were promised that their healthcare costs would not go up, and
I am here to help keep that promise. This tax averages out to be $500 per year,
per employee, and $5,000 over 10 years. That is unfair and burdensome.”
“The HIT is an
often-overlooked tax in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. There
is no line item for it. It is a hidden tax on small business,” said Bill
Herrle, NFIB/Florida Executive Director. “More than 2.1 million small business in Florida
employ more than 2.8 million Florida workers. If you do the math, this tax will
suck billions from the Florida economy over the next 10 years, and small
business will pay that price.”
According
to research by the NFIB Research Foundation, the HIT will jeopardize between
152,000 and 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.
Kelley Olson of Olson Insurance & Financial Services, an NFIB member who
participated in the roundtable, said “Small businesses cannot flourish
when they are stifled by superfluous regulations and paperwork. We are losing
the true, organic small businesses of our Nation, and the HIT will do nothing
but continue this trend. What we need is transparency and accountability in our
healthcare industry as a whole – this way the taxes imposed on health insurance
carriers cannot be passed onto the consumers, the employers and the working
middle class.”
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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.
