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Congresswoman Jenkins Introduces The Simple Fairness Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-02) today released the following statement after she introduced H.R. 4118, the Simple Fairness Act to eliminate the individual mandate tax penalty under the Affordable Care Act for one year:

“Millions of Americans are losing the health insurance they liked, losing access to the doctors they have always seen, subjecting their personal data to an unsecure system, and are paying higher premiums they cannot afford, because of the President’s healthcare law. This law is not working and it is hurting the American people.

“The President recently issued another delay to unilaterally change his own law, a delay that protected businesses from the employer mandate tax. It is not fair to give relief to businesses with big checkbooks, yet not help hard working families with relief from these unaffordable mandates.

“The Simple Fairness Act will give hardworking Americans a one-year delay of the individual mandate tax to provide relief and protect families from this unworkable law. This legislation is about fairness, as it would authorize the same delay for individual Americans that the President keeps giving to businesses.”

Suspending the Individual Mandate Penalty Law Equals Fairness Act (Simple Fairness Act):

-Specifies that in 2014, the individual mandate will be $0 for people who did not sign up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Washington Examiner reported today, “Under the health care law, Americans who don’t purchase government-approved insurance policies face a fine of $95, or 1 percent of taxable income, for 2014. In 2015, the fine is scheduled to increase to $325, or 2 percent of taxable income.”

-The Examiner also noted, “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office confirmed that the chamber would vote on the plan next week.”

-As you know, the Administration announced that 4 million people have enrolled over the exchanges. This means that with only a month left until the end of open season, the Administration is far short of its projected 7 million enrollees and the Administration plans to tax the tens of millions of Americans who were not able to enroll in the ACA this year. 

-However, the Administration had no qualms about delaying the employer mandate twice – once, a full year delay for 2014, and again this year, another full year delay for employers with 51-100 full time employees.  The President has now delayed provisions in his own healthcare law over 20 times in the past year.

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