New Jersey Business Leaders Urge Congress to
Immediately Delay Health Insurance Tax
Ridgewood, NJ (November 27, 2017) – Congressman Josh Gottheimer convened a meeting with local business leaders in Ridgewood today calling on Congress to delay the Health Insurance Tax (HIT). The discussion included small businesses leaders in Northern New Jersey who expressed concerns about the impact of the HIT on New Jersey small businesses and the self-employed if the tax is not delayed before 2018.
“New Jersey has two trains heading right at us: the Tax Hike Bill and the Health Insurance Tax would crush New Jersey seniors, small businesses, and families. New Jersey can’t compete and grow if we are burdened with taxes like the Health Insurance Tax, which will increase premiums up to $500 for seniors, families, and small businesses. The businesses I talked to today made it clear that the HIT is going to hurt jobs and it’s going to hurt families,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5).
The HIT is a federal sales tax on health insurance plans purchased by small business owners, the self-employed, and workers who receive their health care coverage through an employer. Without action by Congress to delay the tax, the HIT is expected to increase premiums nationwide by $14.3 billion next year, when the tax goes into effect in January.
“My business just got a notice from Horizon, our insurer, and premiums next year are going to go up. Now I have to make the decision, how does my business absorb these costs? If Congress lets the HIT tax go through, it is going to hurt employees, hurt the bottom lines of every employer, and hurt the decisions we make to invest long term in New Jersey. We need lawmakers like Congressman Gottheimer to step up and stop the HIT,” said Paul Muller, Owner, Vision Retirement Planning.
The HIT has also been estimated to impact 156 million Americans, with 50% of those paying the HIT earning an income between $10,000 and $50,000. A recent study by Oliver Wyman shows that families in the small employer market could be faced with $500 on average in higher premiums in 2018 as a result of the HIT.
New Jersey is home to more than 800,000 small businesses, which employ more than 1,700,000 private sector workers. According to research by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation, the HIT will jeopardize between 152,000 to 286,000 private-sector jobs across the U.S. by 2023, and reduce real GDP by as much as $20 billion to $33 billion over the same period.
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The Stop The HIT Coalition represents the nation’s small business owners, their employees and the self-employed who are actively working to repeal the Health Insurance Tax. Since the Coalition’s formation in 2011, it has grown to include more than 35 national organizations, representing millions of small business owners across the country. For more information, please visit www.StopTheHIT.com.