Yet Another Employer Healthcare Tax

Deep within a proposal regarding the state budget (SB 21) is a potential $3.2 million healthcare tax on Connecticut employers.

The new tax is an assessment on self insured employers and health insurance carriers in order to help pay for the State Innovation Model (SIM), a program designed to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs.

While the tax on self-insured employers will hit larger businesses, which ironically are already working hard to achieve higher quality and lower cost, it will also hit health insurance carriers that are certain to pass the cost onto smaller businesses.

Concerns with the $3.2 million tax are not just over its cost and how it will impact insurance premiums. Businesses also are questioning why SB 21 taxes only employers that offer their employees health insurance for an initiative that’s supposed to benefit everyone in Connecticut.

Taking into account the existing mountain of new federal and state taxes and fees, this additional tax could make matters unaffordably worse.  [Link to PDF fact sheet]

Instead of charging employers to fund an initiative designed to benefit everyone, this should be a General Fund expenditure. What’s more, it is important to know that SIM has already received about $2.8 million from the feds to start the process and has applied for another $50 million in federal funding.

CBIA urges state lawmakers to eliminate yet another tax driving up the cost of health insurance.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Jennifer Herz at 860.244.1921 | jennifer.herz@cbia.com | @CBIAjherz