Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council: Popular health coverage option coming back to life for small businesses & employees with passage of Cures Act

Contact: Brad Luna, 202-812-8140
brad@lunaeisenlamedia.com

Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) Will Be Restored

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), which includes a host of measures to promote innovation in health care, and accelerate the discovery of disease treatments and drugs and devices to market. The Cures Act also restores Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs), an important and affordable health coverage option made illegal and heavily penalized by the Affordable Care Act, but used by small businesses to provide coverage to their employees.

Karen Kerrigan, president & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, an advocacy and education organization with more than 100,000 members, urged the U.S. Senate to move quickly on the legislation following House passage, and for President Barack Obama to sign it into law.

“HRAs are critically important for entrepreneurs and small business owners. This flexible, affordable and valued benefit is especially needed given the shockingly high cost of coverage and the limited choices available to consumers and small businesses. Getting HRAs back into the mix as an option for our nation’s small businesses and their employees would be a productive first step towards reforming the Affordable Care Act, which Congress and president-elect Donald Trump plan to do early next year.”

Many small business owners have reimbursed their employees for medical expenses using HRAs, but the Affordable Care Act made this an illegal act, fining businesses heavily ($100 day per employee, which went into effect on July 1, 2015) and taking away an affordable and popular coverage option. On June 22, 2016, the U.S. House passed the Small Business Health Care Relief Act (H.R. 5447) by unanimous consent, legislation that restored HRAs, which is the exact same legislation embedded within the Cures Act. The Senate companion bill (S. 3060) to H.R. 5447 has strong bipartisan support.

“HRAs are a simple, easy and affordable way for small businesses to help their employees with rising health care costs. HRAs never should have been taken away as an option in the first place, but we are pleased to see incredibly strong and bipartisan support for making them available again.”

Read the coalition letter in support of the HRA provision in the Cures Act here.