Citing an independent survey that found that American employers will face a 7.2 percent premium increase next year driven in part by the excessive mandates in the partisan health law and the laws’ failure to hold down costs, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, Friday said that repealing the law must be on the table in any discussions to jump start the nation’s lagging economy.
Released last week, the survey, commissioned by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), found that health care benefits costs for large employers would increase by 7.2 percent, which is more than twice the inflation rate and far exceeds the nation’s economic growth rate. It also found that two-thirds of employers surveyed said cost increases would also be borne by employees.
“The partisan health law is an assault on Americans’ individual liberty, as the 11 th Circuit showed last week. It’s also an assault on our economy and on our job creators, as this survey of employers demonstrates,” said Hatch. “The President announced that he’s preparing a so-called jobs plan that will include more stimulus spending. I’d suggest he stop the spending, and turn to his job-killing, budget-busting health law instead. This $2.6 trillion law must be on the table in any discussion about reviving our weak economy.”
Hatch has introduced legislation, the American Job Protection Act (S. 20), that would repeal the burdensome, job-crushing employer mandate that was included in the $2.6 trillion partisan health law that forces employers to provide insurance to their employees. With all of its burdensome mandates and requirements, the law has effectively pushed up health care costs to employers.В В