House to Vote on Two-Year HIT Delay

The House is expected to vote this week on a series of health care-related bills, including one (H.R. 6311) that contains a Farm Bureau-supported two-year delay of the Health Insurance Tax. The HIT has increased health insurance costs by imposing a levy on the net premiums of health insurance companies, which is passed on to consumers. During 2014, $8 billion of excise taxes were levied, and $11 billion was collected in 2015 and 2016 each.

The tax is on hold through 2019 but since the cost of the HIT increases each year, Americans will face an even higher HIT impact in 2020.

“Extending HIT relief into 2020 and 2021 would provide small business owners and their employees with immediate and necessary cost savings of as much as $570 on average in the small group market,” the Stop the HIT Coalition, of which the American Farm Bureau Federation is a member, said in a recent statement in advance of the House vote on the Increasing Access to Lower Premium Plans and Expanding Health Savings Accounts Act.

In addition to delaying the HIT for two years, the measure would expand access to lower-cost health care options and encourage health care savings.