Take Action – Ask Your Representative and Senators to Cosponsor and Approve the Health Insurance Tax Relief Act
NLBMDA urges its members to take action by
contacting their Representative and Senators
and asking them to cosponsor and approve the Health Insurance Tax Relief Act (H.R. 1398, S. 172). The legislation delays the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) on fully insured health care plans for 2020 and 2021.
The HIT is currently suspended for 2019 but is set to return in 2020 unless there is congressional action extending the moratorium. According to America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), if implemented in 2020, the HIT would levy $16 billion in fees on health insurance, including increases of $479 per family in the small-group market and $458 in the large-group market.
Health care remains a major expense for employers that offer coverage to their employees. In a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, for 2018 average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance were $6,896 for single coverage, of which employers on average paid $5,710. The average premium was $19,616 for family coverage, with employers on average contributing $14,069.
Although health insurance companies offering fully insured health care plans are responsible for paying the HIT, it is ultimately passed along to employers in the form of higher premiums. The tax was included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a way to pay for the expansion of health care coverage, yet it has only made health care less affordable for those most in need of relief.
Increased costs, like the HIT, restrict the ability of small and medium-sized businesses to grow and create jobs. Delay, and ultimately repeal, of this onerous and unnecessary tax will provide more certainty and affordability to the nation’s job creators.
