Posted by Kristie Arslan - Well, this long process of crafting health reform legislation in the Senate is about to come to the close this week. The Senate is expected to vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) on Christmas Eve and it looks likely that the Democratic leadership will get their victory.
After a long and arduous battle, NASE's efforts to gain more immediate, bottom line cost savings for the self-employed were unsuccessful. The NASE strongly supported the inclusion of Senate Amendment 3013, offered by Senators Landrieu, Lincoln, Stabenow, Shaheen, and Bayh, which would have provided the self-employed with a 50 percent business deduction for their health care costs; an important first step in making the tax treatment of health costs fair for all businesses. However, Senate leadership chose to forgo this key amendment to instead focus budget resources elsewhere, such as on the expansion of premium assistance for bigger businesses that contribute at least 50% to the cost of group health coverage for their employees.
With minimal provisions to assist the self-employed in affording health coverage, the NASE has issued a statement opposing the Senate health reform bill.
It is going to be a rough winter for our nation's 22 million self-employed business owners if Congress continues down this untenable health reform path.