‘An everybody issue’: Roundtable in Utica discusses health insurance tax

UTICA -- U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi is sponsoring a bipartisan bill to eliminate a health insurance tax set to go back into effect next year.

The bill is backed by a group of local business owners and government officials from four counties who gathered Wednesday for a roundtable discussion of the issue with Brindisi, D-Utica, at Zetlin's Lounge in the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium in Utica.

If it goes into effect, the tax would hit people who buy their own health insurance, small businesses and seniors in Medicare Advantage plans the hardest, Brindisi said. But the pain won't stop there, he said.

"The worry is that everyone around the table is going to feel the impact," he said.

The tax, created by the Affordable Care Act, grows larger each year, but was put on moratorium in 2017 and again this year. It is paid by health plans, but is expected to be added to the price of premiums.

Brindisi introduced the bipartisan Jobs and Premium Protection Act in the House of Representatives on May 1. It is identical to legislation introduced to the Senate by Wyoming Republican John Barrasso in January.

"It isn't a left or right issue. It's an everybody issue," said Lynn Krogh, a principal with the Casale Group in Cooperstown.

All costs keep going up for Allied American Abstract Corporation in Utica, and the health insurance tax would just be another increase, said owner Michael Gigliotti. That makes hiring difficult, he said.

"We'd like to get back on track and start hiring again," he said.

AX Enterprize, a defense contractor in Yorkville and Rome, is competing nationally with firms like Google to recruit employees, she said. The tax and the resulting higher health care costs would take away money, she said.

"Every little bit that we can reinvent in benefits or perk is helpful," she said.

New Hartford realtor David Paciello said the area is seeing investment, relocations and high-paying jobs right now.

"We have the best real estate market we've ever had. ... Anything like this could only hamper that growth," he said.

The ACA did some good work, establishing things like protections for pre-existing conditions and a list of essential benefits that have to be covered, Brindisi said. But some fixes are needed to keep costs down, including the elimination of HIT, he said.

"I don't think anyone should have to worry about going out of business because they can't afford their health insurance," Brindisi said.

New York businesses need all the help they can get to keep costs down given what high costs they already face in the state, agreed Assemblyman John Salka, R-Brookfield.

"This (tax) is going to hit New York businesses hard and they're already getting hit hard," he said.

Salka, a respiratory therapist by training, also warned that anything that affects health care costs "screws things up" in health care. For example, if people lose coverage because of the higher cost, they'll end up in emergency rooms, getting more expensive care for which the hospitals will likely end up paying, he said.

The Affordable Care Act, on paper, shouldn't have cost Oneida County money -- but it did, said Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. Rules about insurance coverage in the act forced the county to hire employees to perform work that had previously been contracted out, he said.

These things always have ripple effects that end up hitting everyone, he said.

"Any insurance increase, down the line, gets to everybody," Picente said.

Contact reporter Amy Neff Roth at 315-792-5166 or follow her on Twitter (@OD_Roth).

___

(c)2019 Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y.

Visit Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y. at www.uticaod.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.