H*5258 Session 110 (1993-1994)
H*5258 Resolution, By Kelley, Bailey, R.A. Barber, J.M. Baxley, Carnell,
R.S. Corning, Delleney, Fair, R.C. Fulmer, J.L. Harris, Harrison, T.E. Huff,
Keegan, Kennedy, Lanford, Littlejohn, J.G. McAbee, McKay, Meacham, Richardson,
Riser, Sharpe, J.S. Shissias, Simrill, D. Smith, Stille, C.H. Stone, Stuart,
P.H. Thomas, Walker, C.C. Wells, Witherspoon, H.G. Worley and Young-Brickell
Similar(S 1448)
A House Resolution memorializing the President of the United States and the
United States Congress to refrain from including employer mandates as part of
any health care reform legislation.
06/01/94 House Introduced HJ-12
06/01/94 House Referred to Committee on Invitations and Memorial
Resolutions HJ-12
06/01/94 House Committee report: Favorable Invitations and
Memorial Resolutions HJ-300
06/02/94 House Adopted HJ-51
COMMITTEE REPORT
June 1, 1994
H. 5258
Introduced by REPS. Kelley, A. Young, Keegan, Simrill, Shissias,
Fulmer, Kennedy, Thomas, Sharpe, Witherspoon, Littlejohn, Harrison,
Riser, Corning, Wells, Baxley, McAbee, Carnell, McKay, G. Bailey,
Stille, Barber, Worley, Richardson, Walker, Stone, J. Harris, Stuart,
Delleney, Lanford, Meacham, D. Smith, Huff and Fair
S. Printed 6/1/94--H.
Read the first time June 1, 1994.
THE COMMITTEE ON
INVITATIONS AND MEMORIAL
RESOLUTIONS
To whom was referred a House Resolution (H. 5258), memorializing
the President of the United States and the United States Congress to
refrain from including employer mandates, etc., respectfully
REPORT:
That they have duly and carefully considered the same, and
recommend that the same do pass:
DEWITT WILLIAMS, for Committee.
A HOUSE RESOLUTION
MEMORIALIZING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
AND THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO REFRAIN FROM
INCLUDING EMPLOYER MANDATES AS PART OF ANY
HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION.
Whereas, under President Clinton's health care reform proposal, all
employers would be required to provide health care coverage to their
employees; and
Whereas, Title I of the Health Security Act would require employers to
pay for eighty percent of a comprehensive set of health care benefits for
all employees, including Medicare recipients, and prorated payments for
part-time and seasonal workers; and
Whereas, such employer mandates would result in job loss, a reduction
in profits and productivity for American business in general, and small
business in particular, and result in higher prices for consumers and
lower wages for workers; and
Whereas, small business owners justifiably fear these employer
mandates will be utilized to fund an entitlement created, managed, and
regulated by the federal government, no different from Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, or Unemployment Insurance; and
Whereas, such employer mandates have every characteristic of the kind
of mandatory payment that is most damaging to small business and the
jobs it creates: it is, in fact, a payroll tax; and
Whereas, almost all employers would be required to fulfill this
obligation by paying a specific percentage of payroll to a regional health
alliance; these mandatory payroll-based premiums constitute a huge,
new payroll tax to pay for sixty percent of the proposed new health care
system; and
Whereas, a national health board would have the unchecked power to
increase at any time the percentage of payroll required to be paid by
employers to the regional health alliance; and
Whereas, this payroll tax would be particularly injurious to new
businesses, which create one in three new jobs in the United States
because the tax mandates an additional fixed cost on those businesses
every time they want to grow and hire new employees; and
Whereas, payroll taxes assessed to pay for mandatory benefits also
impose upon small business owners a new cost over which they have no
control, thus limiting their ability to provide the best possible
compensation package for each individual business's survival and its
employees; and
Whereas, employer mandates would also impose upon employers a wave
of paperwork to be submitted to regional alliances to prove compliance
with the law and to calculate payments; such massive amounts of
paperwork and the cost associated with it would, in essence, be a hidden
tax on employers; and
Whereas, because most small businesses are labor intensive, particularly
in the retail and service sector, small firms are disproportionately
damaged by a payroll-based tax; a payroll tax also acts as a disincentive
for maintaining existing employees; and
Whereas, while small business in general would be adversely affected
by employer mandates, small businesses owned by minorities and
women would be affected to an even greater extent because these firms
tend to be the smallest of our businesses; and
Whereas, based on data from the Census Bureau, the Congressional
Budget Office, and other reliable sources, sixty percent of employers in
the United States have fewer than five employees, accounting for three
million of our employers; of this group, seventy-four percent do not
provide health care insurance for their employees; and
Whereas, employer mandates preclude a health care reform approach
that makes it possible for these small businesses to respond to a
reformed health care insurance market; instead, it immediately and
disproportionately raises the payroll costs of these businesses by 3.5
percent to 7.9 percent of payroll, and ultimately makes them responsible
for eighty percent of a very rich standard health care standard benefits
package; and
Whereas, there exists near unanimity of opinion among the American
people, congressional leaders, economists, and even proponents in the
White House that employer mandates would result in job loss and prove
damaging to small business; and
Whereas, sixty-four percent of Americans are concerned that the Health
Security Act will cause employers to eliminate jobs, and seventy-three
percent of Americans believe the plan would be injurious to small
business; and
Whereas, the Council of Economic Advisors has acknowledged that six
hundred thousand jobs could be lost under the President's plan; the small
business subsidy plan is in and of itself an acknowledgement of the
burden that would be placed on small firms by employer mandates; and
Whereas, a one thousand member survey of the American Economics
Association in June, 1993, indicated that eighty percent of the
economists interviewed projected a decrease in employment among all
employees as the result of requiring employers to provide health care
benefits to low-wage employees; and
Whereas, another study conducted by the Employment Policies Institute
in March, 1994, concluded that requiring employers to pay for workers'
health care insurance expenses would increase labor costs, leading to the
loss of 2.1 million jobs; and
Whereas, a Consad Research Corporation study found that three leading
health care reform plans requiring employer mandates would affect 7.5
million to 18 million jobs in terms of reduced wages, reduction of other
benefits, and potential cuts in hours worked; job loss estimates ranged
from four hundred thousand to over one million. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That this body memorializes the President of the United States and the
Congress of the United States to refrain from including employer
mandates as part of any health care reform legislation. Be it further
resolved, that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that any
federal health care reform enacted into law shall:
(1) preserve the right of all Americans to choose to maintain their
existing health insurance policy;
(2) preserve the right of all Americans to choose their own doctors
and medical service providers;
(3) preserve the right of all Americans to finance their choice of
doctors and medical service providers through private health insurance
by making participation in an alliance, cooperative, collective, or any
other purchasing entity strictly voluntary; and
(4) guarantee nondiscriminatory tax treatment for the purchase of
private health insurance no different than the tax treatment which might
be provided to those who purchase health insurance through a
government-controlled alliance, cooperative, collective, or any other
arrangement.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the
President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House
of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, and each
member of this state's congressional delegation.
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