[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 175 (Wednesday, November 16, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7614-S7616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BARRASSO (for himself, Mr. Hatch, and Ms. Snowe):
  S. 1880. A bill repeal the health care law's job-killing health 
insurance tax; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I want to thank my good friend from 
Wyoming, Senator Barrasso, for his work on this and other issues 
related to the President's health law. He is a leading orthopedist, and 
I have nothing but respect for him. As a former medical liability 
defense lawyer defending doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other health 
care providers, I appreciate good doctors, and this is one good doctor. 
He and Dr. Coburn are two of the best people I have known and are a 
credit to their profession.
  I thank him for his work on this and other issues related to the 
President's health care law. He has been tireless in his careful 
analysis and fair criticism of the health spending law, and I believe 
we are in agreement on that bill's fundamental flaw.
  The President and his allies repeatedly promised that the health law 
would decrease costs. That is not going to happen. The so-called 
Affordable Care Act is going to, in fact, drive up the cost of 
coverage.
  Among the biggest reasons for this inflationary impact are the taxes 
that will be imposed on the American people to pay for the lost $2.6 
trillion in new spending. At the top of the list of senseless cost-
increasing taxes is the law's tax on health insurance. It is not clear 
to me how the cost of health insurance will decrease by taxing it.
  Many people probably don't even know this tax exists. Like most of 
the taxes in ObamaCare, its implementation was conveniently delayed 
until after the 2012 Presidential election. But this tax is coming. It 
is going to hurt employers and employees. It is going to be a drag on 
our economy, and it is going to depress wages.
  I am glad to be standing here with Senator Barrasso as we introduce 
the Jobs and Premium Protection Act, a bill that repeals this onerous 
and counterproductive tax on American workers and job creators. The 
President speaks about the need for Congress to do something about 
jobs. Well, we would go a long way toward creating the conditions for 
job growth by passing this legislation.
  Unemployment in this country remains a full-blown crisis. Millions 
are out of work, and the 9-percent unemployment rate doesn't begin to 
capture the full extent of our jobs deficit. We need policies that will 
encourage businesses to invest and expand. Yet the health law's 
insurance tax does just the opposite. According to a recent analysis, 
in just the first 10 years, the insurance tax would impose $87 billion 
in costs on businesses and their employees. Revenue that could be spent 
on higher wages, new hires, and capital investment--increasing jobs and 
growing the economy--will instead go to pay this tax. And that is just 
the start. In the second decade, this tax will cost businesses and 
their employees $208 billion.

[[Page S7615]]

  It is important to understand how this insurance tax will work. 
Starting in 2014, the health insurance companies will have to pay a tax 
based on their net premiums written in the fully insured market. This 
is the market where 87 percent of small businesses purchase their 
health insurance. It is the market where the self-employed and 
uninsured go to purchase insurance.

  So who will pay this tax? Someone has to pay it. Contrary to the 
talking points that all too often come out of this administration, all 
of these new mandates and regulations are not free. Someone has to foot 
the bill. Ultimately, it will be those least able to afford it who are 
paying it. Primarily small businesses--and their employees--will be 
responsible for paying this tax. When the cost of coverage goes up due 
to this tax, employees will pay for it in lower wages or higher health 
care costs.
  According to a recent study, the average employee with a family plan 
will see his or her take-home pay reduced by $5,000 over the next 
decade because of this tax. The American people should remember that 
statistic the next time they hear their liberal supporters of the 
health care law talk about wage stagnation or income inequality.
  The costs of this tax will be felt by citizens even beyond those 
small businesses. The factories that lose orders because their 
customers' health care costs are going up will pay for this tax. Those 
searching for work will feel it too, because money that could go to new 
wages for new employees will instead go to pay for this tax and 
increased health care costs for existing employees.
  This tax will hit wide swaths of the American economy, with millions 
of businesses and individuals impacted. A study by the National 
Federation of Independent Business shows this tax alone will lead to a 
loss of 125,000 to 249,000 jobs between now and 2021.
  The legislation we are introducing today will help to reverse this 
trend. Ultimately, all of Obamacare must be repealed. I am fully 
committed to uprooting it in its entirety. It undermines our 
Constitution and it undermines personal liberty. It exacerbates the 
Nation's debt crisis by creating and expanding entitlement spending, 
and it also undermines our economy, destroying existing jobs and 
preventing the creation of new ones.
  The people of Utah and people all over the United States need a jobs 
agenda. Repeal of the health insurance tax through the Jobs and Premium 
Protection Act we are introducing today would do much to address the 
scourge of unemployment and get our economy moving again.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, first, I wish to congratulate and thank 
my colleague, the senior Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch, for his 
continued leadership on the issue of health care. As the ranking member 
of the Finance Committee, he has been a stalwart and strong supporter 
in efforts to get for the American people the health care they need, 
from the doctor they want, at a price they can afford, and amazing in 
his fight against what this body, what the House of Representatives, 
and what the President have forced onto people all across this country, 
which, to me, has been bad for patients, bad for the providers of those 
patients--the nurses and doctors who take care of them--and terrible 
for taxpayers.
  That is why week after week I come to the floor to give a doctor's 
second opinion about the health care law, and why I am so pleased to be 
here with my colleague today to join in the introduction of this piece 
of legislation.
  As people all around the country know--those who listened to the many 
speeches given during the debate on health care--the President and 
Democrats in Washington promised the American people this trillion 
dollar health care spending law would lower health insurance premiums. 
That is what the President promised, that health insurance premium 
costs would go down. Well, the American people have now had 19 months 
to review what is in the health care law, and they are finding that the 
President and the Washington Democrats sold them a bill of goods.
  On September 27 of this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation issued its 
annual survey of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums. The 
report showed that employer-provided health insurance premiums rose--
went up, not down--$1,303 for an average family last year alone. 
Remember--and we do--that the President repeatedly promised his health 
care law would reduce the average annual family premium by $2,500. Yet 
the exact opposite of what the President promised has occurred. The 
Kaiser Family Foundation report shows significant premium increases, 
not savings as the President promised.
  Not only are premiums continuing to climb, but the President and 
Washington Democrats paid for their health care spending law by 
imposing billions of dollars in new taxes on American business and 
American consumers. Independent experts agree these taxes only serve to 
increase an individual, a family, or a small business's cost to buy 
medical coverage. Specifically, section 9010 of the health care law 
creates a new $60-plus billion tax on health insurance plans starting 
in 2014.
  The health care law slaps this tax on all health insurance companies 
based on net premiums in what is called the fully insured market. This 
means the tax an insurance company must pay is equal to the percent of 
their market share. The larger the insurance company's market share, 
the higher their annual health insurance tax becomes. The aggregate tax 
in 2014 is $8 billion and climbs to $11.3 billion in 2015 and 2016, 
eventually reaching over $14 billion in 2018. After that, the law 
mandates the health insurance tax grow by premium inflation. More 
inflation, higher taxes.
  Former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin 
released a study in March of this year estimating the health insurance 
tax could exceed $87 billion between 2014 and 2020. Some on the other 
side of the aisle want to message this tax as a ``health insurance 
fee.'' I would say to my friends all across this country, Do not be 
fooled. This new tax directly hits small business.

  The Joint Committee on Taxation makes it clear the insurance tax will 
be borne by consumers in the form of higher prices, by owners of firms 
in the form of lower profits, by employees of those firms in the form 
of lower wages, or by other suppliers to the firms in the form of lower 
payments.
  Remember, this tax only hits health insurance companies that sell 
their products in the fully insured market. As we have learned, and 
heard earlier on the Senate floor, 87 percent of small businesses buy 
their health insurance in this fully insured market.
  The fully insured market is also the place that uninsured individuals 
and the self-employed go when they need to purchase medical insurance. 
Insurance companies selling plans to individuals and small businesses 
are the ones that are hit with the tax. The new tax doesn't hit large, 
self-insured businesses. Ultimately, uninsured individuals, small 
businesses, and their employees are the ones who are going to end up 
paying this unfair tax. This new punitive tax will add hundreds of 
dollars to family and small business insurance premiums every year.
  The Wyoming Blue Cross Blue Shield Association tells me that a 
Wyoming family of four will see a premium increase because of this tax 
of over $300 in 2014. In 2018, that same Wyoming family of four will 
see over a $500 premium increase as a result of the tax. These premium 
increases will have been passed through to consumers as a direct result 
of this health care law's tax component--what the President and the 
Democrats in this body have foisted on the American public.
  Additionally, the Holtz-Eakin March 2011 study proves the health 
insurance tax will raise premiums by as much as 3 percent or nearly 
$5,000 for a family of four over the next decade. What American family, 
I ask you, can afford to see their take-home pay reduced by $5,000 over 
the next decade thanks to the President's new tax. The Nation's 
unemployment rate stands at 9 percent. There are 14 million Americans, 
people across our country, unemployed and looking for work. Struggling 
American families cannot bear the brunt of President's Obama's new tax.
  A recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business 
found this health insurance tax will force the

[[Page S7616]]

private sector to shed somewhere between 125,000 and 249,000 jobs 
between now and 2021. More than half of those losses will fall on the 
backs of small businesses.
  Two million small businesses across this country cannot afford 
President Obama's new tax. Twenty-six million workers, who get their 
insurance through their employer, cannot afford President Obama's new 
tax. And the 12 million people who buy health insurance plans on their 
own in the individual market cannot afford President Obama's new tax. 
That is why today we introduce legislation called the Jobs and Premium 
Protection Act.
  I introduced this bill along with my friend, the ranking member of 
the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Hatch. Our legislation is simple 
and straightforward. It eliminates the health care law's punitive tax 
on every individual, family, and small business that chooses to do the 
right thing and buy health insurance. Unbelievably, the health care law 
punishes individuals and punishes small businesses, the very two groups 
who find buying health insurance at an affordable price extremely 
challenging. Why would the Federal Government implement policies that 
make it harder by imposing a tax on the products these individuals buy?
  Some must believe that insurers will simply be able to absorb the 
tax. Well, experts tell us that assumption is false. Here is what the 
nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation said in a letter to Senator 
John Kyl in June of this year:

       We expect a very large portion of the insurance industry 
     fee to be passed forward to purchasers of insurance in the 
     form of higher premiums.

  A very large portion, they say. Then they go on to say:

       Eliminating this fee would decrease the average family 
     premium in 2016 by $300 to $400.

  Isn't that what we want, to lower the cost of insurance for 
individuals? This is the way to do it.
  Finally, the Joint Committee on Taxation letter confirms the 
following:

       Repealing the health insurance industry fee would reduce 
     the premium prices of plans offered by covered entities by 2 
     to 2\1/2\ percent.

  This ill-conceived discriminatory tax must be eliminated. It must be 
stopped well before it starts to impact individuals, families, and 
small businesses. Our bill is a critical piece of pro-business 
legislation. It has the support of organizations such as the National 
Federation of Independent Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Blue 
Cross Blue Shield Association, and America's health insurance plans.
  I urge colleagues on both sides of the aisle who are concerned about 
the cost of insurance for families of America, who are shocked and 
surprised, some in disbelief, that what the President promised the 
American people--of a reduction in premiums--isn't true, and who want 
to try to in a little way right that wrong to do so by cosponsoring and 
supporting the Jobs and Premium Protection Act.
  I thank the Chair and the ranking member of the Senate Finance 
Committee, Senator Hatch--especially Senator Hatch--for his leadership 
and for joining me in introducing this legislation today. The time has 
come to eliminate a bad policy that not only increases health insurance 
costs but also negatively impacts America's job creators.
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