U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, and others introduced the legislation, which was endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, National Association of Realtors and Service Employees International Union.
The legislation is aimed at lowering health care costs for small businesses by allowing them to group together to obtain lower premiums and provide tax credits — $1,000 per individual and $2,000 per family — for small-business owners to offset contributions to employee premiums. The Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP Act, also would ban health status rating so businesses are protected from large rate increases when a single employee gets sick. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.
According to a news release, the legislation is “designed to make insurance more available and affordable for the 47.1 million employees of the nation’s 5.8 million small businesses and for 14.1 million self-employed individuals.”
Statistics referenced during the conference included:
- Twenty-seven million of the 48 million uninsured in the U.S. are small-business owners. Sixteen percent of Americans are uninsured, and that figure more than doubles for small-business owners and the self-employed.
- Out of 1.25 million Realtors, about one-fourth have no health insurance. Nearly half of those who are covered pay monthly premiums that exceed the mortgage on their homes.
Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., a co-sponsor of the bill, said “it’s clear the American health care system is facing a financial crisis” and that the “rising cost is putting an insurmountable burden on businesses and individuals.”
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