Small Business Health Care Relief Act of 2016

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Small Business Health Care Relief Act, and I want to thank Dr. Boustany for working with me on this bill. As he pointed out, it is an important bill. It will help a lot of people, businessowners, workers, and families.

The bill that we are considering today is the result of more than a year's worth of close collaboration between stakeholders and policymakers. It is bicameral, it is bipartisan, and it is supported by dozens of small businesses and small-business organizations across the country.

Our Small Business Health Care Relief Act would allow small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, those companies that are not required to provide health care, to offer tax preferred Health Reimbursement Arrangements or HRAs. The HRAs can be used to buy health insurance in the individual market, or pay for qualified health expenses if an individual already has coverage.

Historically, small businesses offered these funds to employees in lieu of group health plans. Most of these companies don't have the capacity to offer employer-sponsored coverage, so the HRAs served as health benefits for their workers.

But right now, businesses are subject to this $100 per person per day fine that was mentioned earlier just for offering this help to their employees. This legislation clarifies that an HRA isn't a group health plan, but a means for helping individuals purchase a health plan for health services.

There is no requirement, as I mentioned, for small companies of 50 or fewer people to provide health insurance. These employers don't offer health benefits because they have to, they do it to support their workforce. We shouldn't be penalizing responsible businessowners who are going above and beyond for their employees.

Instead, we should arm small businesses with the tools that help them recruit great workers and put them on a level playing field with their larger competitors. And we should help to make sure that quality, comprehensive coverage is affordable for folks who don't have access to subsidies or employer-sponsored health care. This bill does all of that.

Small businesses drive job creation. They grow our economy. We should be going out of our way to help them support their employees and focus on what they do best, running their business.

And as was mentioned by our ranking member earlier, this is a prime example of how we should be conducting business in this House. We should be working across the aisle in a bipartisan measure. We should be building on the positive aspects of the Affordable Care Act, and this is an example of doing just that.

Again, Dr. Boustany, thank you for your cooperation and your help and your good work on this.

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