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In Case You Missed It

Congress Coming to Greenfield

By Rep. Luke Messer


The open enrollment period for insurance plans mandated by the Affordable Care Act is just months away.  For most Hoosiers, that means a bigger bite out of their monthly budgets next year.  Health insurance premiums in Indiana will go up an average of 13% in 2015 according to a study conducted by the Health Research Institute.   That means individual Hoosiers can expect to pay about $497 per month for insurance without government subsidies.  That’s not affordable, despite the law’s title. 

Employers across the state are facing the same harsh reality.  Business owners and cash-strapped school corporations are grappling with how to deal with a provision of the law that requires them to provide costly health insurance that many of their employees neither want nor need.  These schools and businesses are facing big fines if they don’t.  That’s bad for business and terrible for students.  

Shelbyville Central Schools estimates the Affordable Care Act will cost $794,000 annually.  Southern Hancock School Corporation estimates the cost at $450,000.  To help deal with the increased strain on already cash-strapped budgets, bus drivers, teachers’ aides, and other support staff have already had their hours reduced.  

The largest school district in Indiana, Fort Wayne Community Schools, has calculated that it would either face $10 million of added compliance costs or be forced to pay $8 million in fines to the IRS to comply with the mandate.  The district has been forced to cut the hours of more than 600 part-time cafeteria workers and teachers’ aides as a result.

Small business owners have to make the same tough choices.  The law’s redefinition of what is means to work full-time—30 hours—makes more employers with fewer employees subject to the same fines as schools unless they provide costly insurance.  According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, these tough choices will reduce labor force compensation and push as many as 2.3 million people out of the workforce over the next seven years.  This “new normal” for our nation’s workforce is not OK.  

The House of Representatives has acted to stop this damage by voting to repeal, delay, and defund this law.  But the Senate has failed to follow suit.  They need to hear your voices.  That’s why the Committee on Education and the Workforce, of which I am a member, has decided to hold a field hearing in Greenfield entitled “The Effects of the President’s Health Care Law on Indiana’s Classrooms and Workplaces.”  It’s a chance for Hoosier school and business leaders to express their concerns to Congress and draw attention to the harm the President’s health care law is having on students and workers.  

The hearing, held by the Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, will bring together members of Congress from around the state and nation to hear first-hand how this law is hurting Hoosiers.  The hearing is scheduled to take place on Thursday, September 4, 2014, at 10 a.m. at Greenfield City Hall located at 10 S. State Street in Greenfield.  

I look forward to bringing Congress to Greenfield and invite you to join us on September 4th.  

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