Healthcare Reform

IEC contractor members are proud of the competitive benefits and wages they offer to their employees, and IEC has long supported commonsense reforms to our nation’s health care system with the hopes of driving down costs, increasing efficiencies, and lessening the stress that providing quality health insurance options places on both employers and employees. 

IEC has been a vocal advocate to Congress for market-driven reforms that ensure affordability, provide greater choice to consumers, and make it easier for small business owners to offer their employees quality health care options. In the comprehensive tax reform bill, Congress repealed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. 

IEC supports legislative efforts to alleviate the negative impacts of the PPCA through revision or repeal, and to delay or eliminate compliance with damaging new mandates.  

Healthcare Reform pull quote

Association Healthcare Plans

EC vehemently opposed passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010. The myriad of mandates on both individuals and employers included in the enacted law continue to create uncertainty and impose costly burdens on IEC contractor members, their families, and their employees.

Complete repeal of PPACA is highly unlikely; however, efforts to enact amendments to the that blunt its impact on small businesses are more viable. In October 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order authorizing rules and guidance to be drafted to provide for association health plans. Proposed regulations were released by DOL in January 2018, and final rules were released in June 2018. As of October 2018, a lawsuit by 12 states’ attorneys general is pending that intends to stop the rules from taking effect. A March 2019 district court decision sided with the attorneys general, invalidating the rule. The Trump administration is appealing the ruling and oral arguments were given in November 2019. The court’s decision is expected early in 2020.

IEC opposed the health insurance tax (HIT) and supported its temporary and complete repeal.

Health Insurance Tax Pull Quote

Health Insurance Tax

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the cost of small business health insurance premiums is slated to increase as a result of a provision instituting a new sales tax on health insurance companies that will generate $87 billion in assessments between 2014 and 2019 alone. This tax will be passed on to consumers in the fully insured marketplace, where nearly all small businesses and the self-employed purchase their coverage. Since its inception, the HIT has been lifted off and on until Congress enacted a permanent repeal in December 2019 effective January 1, 2021. This means that the HIT will still be in place in 2020. 

IEC is a supporter of Association Health Plans and medical liability reform.

Association Healthcare Plans Pull Quote

Questions?

Contact the national staff member below for any questions regarding advocacy.