In their first week in session, Republican House members will vote on legislation that exempts employers from having to provide healthcare to a number of their workers. While they have argued that the bill is based on smart economics, the Congressional Budget Office said it will add tens of billions of dollars to the national deficit.
The bill, known as the Save American Workers Act, increases how many hours Americans have to work before they qualify or employer-sponsored health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Currently, the law requires businesses with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance to workers who log thirty or more hours per week. Through their proposed reform, Republicans are seeking to raise that limit to 40 hours.
According to the CBO, the GOP initiative would give a solid benefit to big business that choose not to provide their workers with health care. The agency said that the legislation “would reduce the number of employers that are assessed penalties and lower the penalties assessed against some employers.”
The CBO went on to say the bill would also cast a million people off the rolls of employer-based health insurance, forcing hundreds of thousands of them into federal and state insurance programs, and increase the ranks of the uninsured in America.
That would reverse the recent rise in the rate of people with insurance coverage. Today, Gallup released a poll showing that the uninsured rate for US adults dipped in the fourth quarter of last year to 12.9%.
It would also shift significant costs from corporations to US taxpayers.
“As a consequence of the changes…enacting H.R. 30 would increase budget deficits by $18.1 billion over the 2015-2020 period and by $53.2 billion over the 2015-2025 period,” the CBO found.
Arriving at similar conclusions, the White House reiterated a threat to veto the legislation on Tuesday.
The measure passed the Republican House last year with the support of more than a dozen Democrats.
Read the full CBO report here.
