Health Insurance Tax
Health Insurance Tax. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.
When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act they needed a way to pay for it. So they created some new taxes. One of them is the Health Insurance Tax – known as HIT.
WOLFF: It's a tax on the premiums that health insurance companies collect. That tax is set to kick in January 1 of 2014 and the rates for health insurance next year are rising to pay that tax. The average HIT for each family will be about a $500 increase in premiums, due to this new tax.
American Farm Bureau tax specialist Pat Wolfe points out that most farmers and ranchers have to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company whose premiums determine how much HIT an insurance company must pay. Those companies are passing that cost to the small businesses that purchase those plans.
WOLFF: The only remedy for the problem is for Congress to repeal this tax and there's legislation proposed to do that. In fact several of the bills that have been introduced would not only repeal the tax going forward, but would require insurance companies to rebate or give back the amount of premium increase that was caused by the tax.
That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
