Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense Arrangement Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the CHOICE Arrangement Act and my Small Business Flexibility Act, which is included in the underlying bill as the chairman just recognized.

Over the past 10 years, health insurance premiums have gone up 130 percent, and deductibles have increased by 125 percent, and that is on average. It is even greater in some areas, especially for small business owners.

This lack of affordability has led to the percentage of small businesses providing health insurance decreasing from almost 45 percent to 31 percent today. In addition, 75 percent of businesses with fewer than 200 employees now only offer one healthcare choice. That is no choice.

Small business operators want to provide for their employees. They want to offer competitive benefits that promote choice in the marketplace while prioritizing excellent care, quality, and affordability. The problem is these costs are simply prohibitive.

We should not accept this as the status quo, and, thankfully, there are commonsense solutions that can help small businesses lower cost and increase choice for their employees.

Recent surveys have found that 70 percent of small businesses are not even aware of the flexible opportunities to help them provide affordable health insurance as a benefit to their employees, such as the Small Business Healthcare Tax Credit, CHOICE Arrangement Act, and Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements.

My Small Business Flexibility Act will close this awareness gap by requiring the Treasury Department to notify and educate small businesses on the flexible coverage options.

Small employers want to provide these benefits to their employees for, among so many other reasons, long-term retention to allow them to ensure that they have high quality of life, and each of them has access to healthcare.

It is time that we increased awareness of these programs and address any obstacles to their successful and effective implementation. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to support the CHOICE Arrangement Act and the Small Business Flexibility Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source