What this bill does
This bill would change the requirement for companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance to their workers.
Without this bill, companies are required to provide insurance for all employees working more than 30 hours a week. With this bill that would change to employees who work more than 40 hours a week.
This bill also changes the way penalties are calculated for companies who do not provide insurance. It would reduce the penalties on those companies.
Who would the winners and losers be?
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that a million workers would have their work week cut to fewer than 40 hours - meaning they would lose employer-provided health insurance.
Most of these employees would then purchase insurance on an exchange or be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP (for their children). In most of these cases, the cost of their health insurance would be subsidized by the federal government - costing taxpayers as much as $50 billion over the next decade.
Some employees - those who currently are forced to work fewer than 30 hours a week - might benefit by receiving more hours. Their employer, however, still would not be required to offer them health insurance.
Companies who employ more than 50 people would be the biggest beneficiary if this bill becomes law. They would be required to provide health insurance to fewer employees. In addition, penalties for not offering required insurance would be reduced.
How do organizations feel about this?
Organizations that support this bill include...
o National Restaurant Association
o Retail Industry Leaders Association
o National Federation of Independent Business
Organizations opposing this bill include the American Federation of Teachers.
What happened with this bill
This bill passed the House of Representatives, but was not acted on by the Senate. It expired when the 114th Congress ended in Jan. 2017.
More information
You can find more details about this bill at GovTrack.us.
You also can read our discussion of this issue.