National Small Business Association (NSBA) officials recently joined other organizations in seeking suspension of the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) for calendar year 2020.
The HIT is a tax passed onto consumers in the fully insured marketplace, where nearly all small businesses and the self-employed purchase their health coverage, in the form of higher premiums, opponents of HIT said.
NSBA and other coalition members recently forwarded correspondence to congressional leaders lauding previous efforts to suspend the HIT for calendar years 2017 and 2019. The letter calls for Congress to take immediate action to delay the HIT by including a provision in an end-of-year tax package.
Opponents of the tax maintain it is one of the largest small-business tax increases included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed into law in 2010 and has increased in cost each year of its implementation.
Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Doug Jones (D-AL) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) forwarded a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last week, urging action to extend the HIT moratorium.
“Unless Congress acts, insurance carriers will include re-imposition of the tax for 2020 as they begin the process of setting rates early next year,” the senators wrote. “Absent further congressional action, the tax will result in higher health insurance premiums throughout the insurance markets.”