Messer presses HHS Secretary on Obamacare’s impact on small businesses

WASHINGTON—This week, Congressman Luke Messer (IN-06) questioned Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell about the impact the President’s health care law is having on Hoosier businesses. 

Under current law, small businesses with 50 employees or more are subject to the mandates, taxes and penalties of Obamacare.  But, the President has chosen to ignore his own law and raise the employee threshold to 100 until 2016.  The decision to temporarily raise the threshold has been a welcomed relief for many small business owners, but will end in just a few months.

When Congressman Messer asked Secretary Burwell about this temporary decision, she never provided a logical answer.  You can watch the exchange here.

“I think it’s clear that this Administration has acknowledged that Obamacare’s taxes and penalties are detrimental to small businesses,” said Congressman Messer.  “I don’t know why Secretary Burwell refused to recognize that fact during her testimony.  That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to permanently change the law instead of just providing temporary relief.”

The Small Business Job Protection Act of 2015 (H.R. 2881), which Congressman Messer introduced last month, would make the 100 employee threshold permanent.  That means small businesses with less than 100 employees would be exempt from Obamacare’s employer mandate. 

“We should be encouraging job growth, not discouraging new jobs with costly taxes and regulations.  Obamacare needs to be fully repealed, but until that time, we should do all we can to protect employers and encourage them to hire more workers, not penalize them."