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President’s New Health Care Proposal is “Bad Policy” and “Short-Sighted”

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CONTACT:  Kristofer Eisenla, Luna Eisenla Media
kristofer@eisenlamedia.com | 202-670-5747 (mobile)

National Association for the Self-Employed Says Now is the Time for 12-Month Open Enrollment Period, One-Year Delay in Penalty

WASHINGTON, DC – As President Barack Obama announced new rules today allowing insurance companies to extend non-compliant health care plans into 2014, Katie Vlietstra, Director of Government Affairs for The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), the nation’s leading advocate and resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses, today called the Administration’s new proposal “bad policy.”  Today’s announcement by the White House comes a day after officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released enrollment numbers for the first month in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) showing a dismal 106,185 enrollees.

“The Administration has delivered a stinging blow to the health care reform law by muddying the waters of an already confusing and botched enrollment process in the Exchange marketplaces,” said Katie Vlietstra, NASE’s Director of Government Affairs. “The NASE – along with the millions of self-employed and micro-businesses nationwide who will be in the individual market – strongly opposes this new approach to fix the problem by the Administration. We advocate for simple and common sense tweaks to the health care reform process such as allowing for a 12-month open enrollment period and delaying the individual mandate penalty for one-year. The bottom line: the White House proposal is short-sighted and presents further challenges for everyday Americans to comply with the individual mandate requirements.”’

Eliminating the open enrollment deadline would allow adequate time for small businesses and American’s nationwide to become better informed about the options available and costs associated with the new health care plans. Delaying the individual mandate penalty will put individual American’s – including the self-employed – on a level playing field with the rest of the business community, who have already won a reprieve from the Administration for one-year. The NASE recently conducted a survey of its membership that indicated that over half of the respondents were unsure if they would enroll in the new health care Exchanges. The NASE is currently conducting a post-enrollment survey of its membership, in which the findings will be released soon.

“We encourage Members of Congress to work together in a bipartisan way to fix this legislation so it can provide access to affordable health care for all Americans,” concluded Vlietstra.

RESOURCES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND THE SELF-EMPLOYED

The More You Know Infographic offers topline advice for America’s 23 million self-employed and micro-businesses as they prepare for the opening of the federal and state health care Exchanges. The NASE has been supporting the small business communities around the country become better informed about how to approach the upcoming open enrollment period.

Affordable Care Act in Brief highlights how the new health care law will impact 23 million self-employed and micro-businesses nationwide. It outlines the pros and cons of health care coverage small businesses must consider while underlining the lack of information in the public domain about the health care law, the Exchanges and details of enrollment requirements.