WASHINGTON (September 30) -- In response to Congress passing the PACE Act today, Council for Affordable Health Coverage President Joel White issued the following statement:
"Today's vote is a testament to what bipartisan efforts to lower health costs and raise take home pay for workers can accomplish.
The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) joins small businesses and their employees in celebrating the U.S. Senate's passage of the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act. This bipartisan, commonsense legislation (H.R. 1624) will avoid an unnecessary 18 percent increase in health insurance premiums and provide much-needed relief to small businesses. The PACE Act will now go to the Oval Office, where we hope the president will sign it into law.
Passage of the PACE Act comes at a critical time as health insurance premium rates are being finalized for the upcoming year. Moreover, employers are already shopping for coverage options and will need to make decisions soon for plans that begin in 2016.
The bill protects small businesses from an Affordable Care Act provision that requires the definition of the small-group market to include employers with up to 100 employees beginning in 2016. This redefinition would force many companies that have historically been defined as large-group into the small-group market, where they will face additional mandates, higher premiums, less flexibility, and new barriers to coverage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation will lower health costs and increase employee wages.
On behalf of employers and their employees, the Council for Affordable Health Coverage thanks the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate for their bipartisan, bicameral efforts to protect and preserve the existing small group market. Not only will this legislation promote stability and predictability when it comes to health insurance premiums, it will also allow small and mid-sized businesses to keep existing health insurance plans for their employees. Congress is helping small businesses dodge futile premium increases. We hope the president will do the same."
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For more information or to set up an interview with Joel White, contact Sandra Ramos at 202- 471-4228 ext. 115 or [email protected].
About the Council for Affordable Health Coverage
The Council for Affordable Health Coverage is a broad-based association of organizations representing consumers, physicians, small businesses, large employers, manufacturers and retailers, franchises, insurers, brokers and agents dedicated to the principle that health coverage should be affordable for all Americans.
October 1, 2015
