On April 28, ABC submitted a letter to the chairmen of the congressional Task Force on Health Care Reform urging them to take action on common-sense health care solutions.  In the letter, ABC expressed its strong support for the task force’s mission to “modernize American health care with a patient-centered system that gives patients more choice and control, increases quality and reduces costs.”

“March 23, 2016, marked the sixth anniversary of the massive and complex Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Years later, it fails to lower health insurance premiums for hard working Americans and imposes costly new taxes, as well as costly and burdensome federal mandates on ABC member companies,” ABC said in the letter. "Rather than make coverage more accessible, the ACA has instead buried businesses in thousands of pages of complex regulations and failed to provide the necessary education to prepare businesses for compliance. Further, the ACA has significantly reduced businesses’ flexibility to provide quality health care benefits to their employees." 

To provide relief to businesses and their employees, ABC urged the task force to move forward on a series of key initiatives: 

• Allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines. 
• Providing a tax deduction for the self-employed and for employers.
• Permitting small businesses greater freedom to adopt health care programs, such as Small Business Health Plans (SBHPs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs).
• Ensuring that employers can offer beneficial employee wellness programs without unnecessary government interference.
• Advancing the widespread adoption of health information technology. 

Read the full text of ABC’s letter here.

Read more about the Task Force on Health Care Reform here.

Suggested Tags:  Legislation; GA-Insurance Exchanges; GA-HealthCare Taxes; GA-Legislative Activities