NFIB is working with Stop The HIT, a group fighting to repeal the health insurance tax affecting millions with higher premiums and costs.
NFIB has sided with a group called Stop The HIT in an effort to repeal an expensive health insurance tax affecting small business owners. Federal lawmakers have taken action with House Resolution 928, a piece of short legislation that would repeal the health insurance tax on insurance providers as outlined in section 9010 of the Affordable Care Act.
Stop The HIT is a group that works exclusively on this issue of hidden taxes and fees in the Affordable Care Act.
Provision 9010 imposes a fee to each person included on a health insurance plan, based on net premiums. NFIB and Stop The HIT consider the provision unfair and too costly, and the Congressional Budget Office found that the added cost of the tax is handed down to business owners and families in the form of higher premiums and more out-of-pocket expenses. Larger, self-insured businesses are not affected.
According to Stop The HIT, “the only insurance plans that factor into the equation for purposes of determining the insurance company’s portion of the HIT are fully-insured plans—purchased by 88 percent of small business owners.”
NFIB and several other small business organizations are actively working on repealing the tax.
“The main reason we’re involved is because small businesses have to pay higher premiums,” says Nicole Riley, NFIB/Virginia state director. “The tax specifically hits small businesses because they are in the full insurance market, while big businesses with many employees can be self-insured and are not hit with the tax.”
In Virginia, a state where economic activity has picked up much faster than the national rate, there are nearly 1.5 million small business workers, and over 670,000 small businesses that are subject to additional health insurance taxes.
There is a steep fee of at least $10,000 for businesses that do not comply or provide information on entities included on insurance plans to the IRS by April 15. In 2014, the tax raised $8 billion, and it is expected to raise $14.3 billion by 2018, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The committee also found that repealing the tax would result in a 2 percent to 2.5 percent drop in premium prices.
“American families and small businesses are on the brink of being crushed under the weight of the health insurance tax,” says Charles Boustany, Louisiana congressman and sponsor of the House Resolution. “This provision drives up costs for individuals, families and small businesses, while threatening hundreds of thousands of lost jobs over the next decade.
Stop The HIT plans to hold an event in the Roanoke area of Virginia to promote its cause and awareness for the small business community. NFIB strongly opposes several measures of the ACA and all measures that increase costs for small business members.
