The HIT on Small Businesses

Small businesses throughout New Hampshire are feeling the pressure of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Since enactment, the ACA has been a headache for local business owners being bombarded by new taxes, fees and mandates.

The Health Insurance Provider’s Fee, known as the Health Insurance Tax (HIT), will create another expensive burden for New Hampshire’s small businesses.

The HIT, advertised as a fee imposed on insurance providers, is a hidden tax on small businesses and individuals with private insurance. The Congressional Budget Office stated, “The HIT would be largely passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums for private coverage” and the actuarial firm Oliver Wyman estimates the HIT will increase costs for small businesses by $530 annually for each person they employ.

Cost increases force small business owners to adapt. Policies like the HIT encourage businesses to decrease benefits, pay lower wages or shrink in size. The National Federation of Independent Business predicts the HIT will reduce future private sector job creation by 125,000 nationally- 59% of which would have been through small businesses.

Last year lawmakers from both parties voted to delay the HIT for a year but DC should know better than to kick the can a little farther down the road. Rather than delaying this burdensome tax, Congress should seek its repeal.

I would like to thank Senator Kelly Ayotte and Congressman Frank Guinta for their previous efforts to repeal the Health Insurance Tax and I request all candidates for Federal office support an expedited repeal of this burdensome, unfair tax on small businesses.

State Representative Joseph Sweeney

Salem, NH