06/30/2008
Health insurance
A dangerous legislative session for small business owners concerned with health insurance costs continued last week with House passage of a bill to double the minimum insurance coverage for foods required by those suffering from gastrointestinal diseases from $2500 to $5000 annually (House Bill No. 925). In addition, the House gave initial approval to legislation to expand the state's most generous mental health parity law by requiring unlimited coverage for non-biologically based conditions be included in basic health insurance policies sold in Massachusetts (House Bill No. 4423). These new mandates were adopted prior to receiving the statutorily required cost-benefit analysis of all new proposed mandates and in violation of the one major provision of the new health insurance reform law that addressed costs: a moratorium on all new mandates. The House previously passed legislation authorizing state regulators to establish nurse staffing ratios in hospitals, which are estimated to cost between $200 and $500 million per year (House Bill No. 4783).
While new and expanded mandates may on some level be desirable, to require by law that they be included in the most basic insurance policies sold in the state increases the cost of health insurance for employers and employees, reduces the flexibility of business owners to offer the benefits employees want, and has a disproportionate impact on small businesses as larger businesses increasingly avoid the state regulations.
Some of the additional costs may have caught the attention of federal budget office representatives seem less likely to approve the sate's $600 million Medicaid waiver that is desperately needed to fund the new health insurance law.
Cell phone use in vehicles
Legislation to ban cell phone use in vehicles with an exemption for hands free devices (House Bill No. 4477) is likely to come to the Senate floor soon. The House passed the bill in January after adopting several amendments.
Small business regulatory impact statements
The Joint Committee on Community Development and Small business has reported favorably and sent to the House Ways and Means Committee NFIB priority legislation to require all new state regulations be accompanied by a statement reviewing the impact of the regulation on the state's small businesses (House Bill No. 165).
And in D.C.
NFIB is strongly supporting relief from and repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was designed to prohibit a few wealthy taxpayers from avoiding taxes, but is now affecting millions of taxpayers because of inflation. In addition to higher taxes, AMT also imposes costs on small business owners because of the complicated double tax calculation it requires. But Congress is also trying to enact new taxes and regulations to pay for the loss of revenues from repeal of the AMT. NFIB believes that repeal of the AMT is not a tax cut, but only a repeal of a tax increase whose revenues were never intended to be collected. AMT relief therefore should not be subject to paid-for requirements that would add increase costs for businesses and the economy.
NFIB sent a letter to Congress last week strongly supporting an increase in offshore oil and gas exploration to alleviate the strong concerns small business owners express regarding the high price of fuel and its impact on their businesses and the economy. NFIB announced support for a comprehensive energy plan earlier this year.
