Let's Hope For A Miracle & This Bill Will Pass

[Lee B]

Small Business Healthcare Relief Act of 2014 Introduced Could Change HRAs for Small Group Employers

The Small Business Healthcare Relief Act of 2014 was recently introduced to a congressional committee by Reps. Charles W. Boustany, Jr. (R-LA) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) on December 11, 2014. If the new bill were to pass, small employers would no longer have to worry about violating the health reform law by offering a stand-alone Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) any longer.

Under the new bill, small employers (49 or fewer employees) could:

• Use pre-tax dollars to give workers a defined contribution
• Allow employees to use those pre-tax funds in an HRA to purchase healthcare coverage on the individual market and for qualified out-of-pocket medical expenses
• Avoid financial penalties for providing these types of funds to employees

The legislation has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means, so only time will tell what Congress might have in store for Health Reimbursement Arrangements. In the meantime, contact your Representative about supporting H.R.5860 — Small Business Healthcare Relief Act of 2014 in support of permitting small businesses to use pre-tax dollars for assistance to employees purchasing policies in the individual market

 

What are the chances this will pass in the next month or two ?

 

[Jack from Ohio]

The same chance that Hillary Clinton will become a Republican.

[BulldogTom]

This makes way too much sense for the politicos in Washington to pass.

 

Tom

Newark, CA

[Richcpaman]

Actually, this and the change in the definition of "full-time" under the ACA from 30 hours to 40 hours, does have a reasonable chance to pass.

 

The R's can not and never will repeal the ACA.  But they can pass a technical corrections piece.  And these are some of them.

 

JMVHO.

 

Rich

[Gail in Virginia]

Is there anything else included in the bill?  Often what keeps a perfectly sensible piece of legislation from passing is that something totally unrelated gets tacked onto the bill because it otherwise doesn't have a chance of slipping through and then you either pass something stupid to get something reasonable or you vote against something you might want to pass.  I would say there ought to be a law, but we already have too many to keep up with.

[Catherine]

 I would say there ought to be a law, but we already have too many to keep up with.

 

My husband's idea is that every law should have an expiration date.  That way a bad law can be let die without fanfare or assignment of blame or finger-pointing, and the good laws that need renewing will keep the legis-vermin (my term, not his) busy enough to cause little additional damage.

[BulldogTom]

My husband's idea is that every law should have an expiration date.  That way a bad law can be let die without fanfare or assignment of blame or finger-pointing, and the good laws that need renewing will keep the legis-vermin (my term, not his) busy enough to cause little additional damage.

 

That is a variation on my thought.  I would make every law be resubmitted if less than 50% of the congress who voted for it were still in office.  That way, when we throw the bums out who make bad laws, the law goes with them.  Right now, we throw them out when they get too aggressive, but they still leave their legacy behind.  Any law that passes three times under this rule would be deemed acceptable and no longer need to be re-voted.

 

Tom

Newark, CA

[kcjenkins]

My choice would be that, going forward, every new law should have to include the elimination of two old laws !  And every new regulation should require the elimination of three old regulations.  

[easytax]

How about simple have a law that requires a "straight up or down" vote for each item?

 

We could actually see and understand what our representatives believed and stood for   AND understand the "REAL" issues ourselves.

 

 

Please excuse the terminology in the next line; I just could not think of a 'correct" way to say it nicer.

 

To fix things is really simple, to have the capabilities and //// insert your gender choice (balls or ovaries) /// to do what is good (yes, your opinion) for the country OVER your own ambitions.