The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
United States House of Representatives
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Majority Leader
United States House of Representatives
The Honorable Steny Hoyer
Minority Whip
United States House of Representatives
The Honorable Fred Upton
Chairman
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
The Honorable Frank Pallone
Ranking Member
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
The Honorable Paul Ryan
Chairman
House Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable Sander M. Levin
Ranking Member
House Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable John Kline
House Committee on Education and the Workforce
The Honorable Robert C. Scott
House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Dear Mr. Speaker and Representatives,
The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) represents the country’s largest and most prestigious companies across every sector of the economy. On behalf of ERIC’s members, I write to you today to ask for your support of key provisions in the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 (H.R. 3762), including repealing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) 40 percent excise tax on high-value employer-sponsored health care benefits, the employer mandate, and the automatic enrollment requirement.
The 40 percent excise tax does nothing to reach its purported goal of bringing down the cost of health care. The addition of the tax on top of the already rising costs of health care would actually limit the ability of ERIC members to continue offering high-quality, cost-efficient health care benefits. If employers are forced to limit their health benefits in order to avoid the tax, it could be detrimental to the health of millions of employees and their families. At a time when we should be supporting the middle class these new burdens will have nothing but damaging effects.
ERIC also supports repeal of the ACA’s automatic enrollment requirement, which would require group health plans to automatically add all employees to the employer’s health plan. This is an unworkable provision of the ACA that would generate an extraordinary burden for employer group health plans without any corresponding benefit, while sowing confusion and uncertainty among employees.
ERIC urges you to act now and relieve America’s companies from these unnecessary administrative and financial burdens. We look forward to working with you on measures that allow large employers to continue providing health benefits without the needless and expensive taxes, mandates or reporting requirements.
Sincerely,
Annette Guarisco Fildes
President and CEO