Saturday, January 8, 2011

Health Care Bill's Tax Break a Winner with Employers

You won't hear Republicans talking about this provision of the health care reform act when they try to repeal it next week. It would be too hard to explain to business groups why they want to take it away.

But a tax credit for small businesses is expanding the number of companies offering health insurance to their employees -- private health insurance.

The Los Angeles Times reports that some insurers have seen increases of as much as 58 percent in small businesses buying insurance since the health care reform measure was passed in March. The tax credit for health insurance premiums, which can amount to as much as 35 percent of the premium, is already in effect.

The newspaper reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City has been aggressively marketing the tax credit to small businesses and "is reporting a 58% jump in the number of small businesses buying insurance since April, the first full month after the legislation was signed into law."

So the question for Republican Mike Rogers and other Michigan Republicans in Congress is, why do you want to take away this tax credit that is helping small businesses?

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