Dear Congressman Boustany and Congresswoman Bera:

Business Roundtable strongly supports H.R. 3367, The Small Business and Family Relief Act, which would delay the health insurance tax established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for two years and protect individuals and families from facing even higher health care costs.  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 more than 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.  As such, we play a significant role in helping American workers and their families remain healthy and receive treatment when necessary.  Roundtable CEOs have opposed the tax since it was enacted and called for elimination of the tax in our pro-growth policy agenda, “Taking Action for America: A CEO Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth,” released earlier this year.  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.  Medical care costs are also putting a strain on the household budgets of many American families.  Imposing a tax on health care insurers will do nothing to improve the efficiency or quality of the health care system, and the tax will simply be passed on to consumers, causing their health care costs to increase without adding value or improving patients’ health.  On these same grounds, we also encourage Congress to take up legislation that repeals or delays similarly disruptive taxes under the ACA, including the pharmaceutical tax, the 
medical device tax, and the “reinsurance fee” – a tax levied against employers that offer health coverage in order to fund the ACA’s transitional reinsurance program.

For these reasons, we applaud you for introducing The Small Business and Family Relief Act.  Business Roundtable looks forward to working with you to achieve passage of this important, bipartisan legislation that will prevent employers’ and families’ health care costs from rising unnecessarily as the insurance markets stabilize over the coming years.

Sincerely,

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