Dear Congressmen Tiberi and Lipinski:

The Business Roundtable applauds you for introducing legislation that supports employer-sponsored health insurance by striking the funding mechanism for the transitional reinsurance program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or the “reinsurance fee.”  Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $7.4 trillion in annual revenues and more than 16 million employees.  Business Roundtable member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and invest $158 billion annually in research and development – equal to 62 percent of U.S. private R&D spending.  Roundtable companies give more than $9 billion a year in combined charitable contributions.

Business Roundtable companies provide health coverage to over 40 million Americans and share the goal of continuing to provide this important benefit to their employees, retirees, and their families in the years to come.  Employer-sponsored coverage is a cornerstone of the current health insurance market. However, Business Roundtable CEOs consistently cite rising medical care costs as one of their greatest cost pressures.  These costs are inhibiting job creation and damaging our ability to compete in global markets.  The added “reinsurance fee” is a per capita fee that applies only to employers offering health coverage to their employees, retirees, and their families.  Next year, this fee will total $63 per covered life – which equates to millions of dollars annually for many employers.  This fee will significantly add to employers’ health care costs without improving quality, creating efficiency, or resulting in better health care.

For these reasons we are pleased to support your proposed legislation, which would eliminate this punitive and burdensome fee on employers that 
continue to offer health coverage.  Business Roundtable looks forward to working with you to achieve passage of this important, bipartisan legislation that will prevent employers’ health care costs from rising unnecessarily and supports the business community’s continued offering of health insurance coverage to employees, retirees, and their families.

Sincerely,

Gary Loveman
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Caesars Entertainment Corporation
Chair, Health and Retirement Committee
Business Roundtable