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NRA to Congress: 'Press go on health act but fix it later'

March 22, 2017

National Restaurant Association Policy and Government Affairs EVP Cicely Simpson today told Speaker of the House and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan to press forward with the latest take on a federal health care policy, the American Health Care Act or AHCA. Simpson said in the letter that the NRA considers the plan "an important first step towards reforming the employer mandate and lessening the burden that employers have faced in complying with the Affordable Care Act."

The statement, however, and much of the letter made it clear that the act as it is currently written needs a lot of work to make businesses like those involved in the nation's restaurant sector, fully supportive. As Simpson went on to say, the NRA wants additional "fixes" to the current plan including the: 

• Repeal of the 32-hour rule.
• Streamlining of employer insurance reporting requirements.
• Repeal of seasonal worker definition. 

The organization stressed the scope of the many business leaders and employees it represents and said it wants their interests met on "common sense reforms to the current health care law."

Simpson said since the Affordable Care Act became law, the employer mandate has forced restaurateurs to invest hundreds of hours into managing and delivering the benefits, which the NRA believes has cost a lot of money but failed to improve the health insurance restaurants offer employees. 

The NRA said that the current act's mandates have stymied industry growth by discouraging restaurant chain expansion and hiring. Simpson wrote that the U.S. Census Bureau reported that a record 76 percent of restaurant employees had health insurance coverage in 2015, up from 59 percent in 2010. 

"However, this growth was driven primarily by sources other than employment-based plans, even though the ACA required more restaurant businesses to offer health insurance coverage," the letter said. "In fact, only 59.2 percent of restaurant employees with health insurance got their coverage through an employment-based plan in 2015 — down sharply from 67 percent in 2010. Additionally, health insurance costs rose much faster than restaurant sales in recent years. Between 2006 and 2016, the average annual employer contributions to health insurance premiums for family coverage jumped 51 percent, according to the Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits."

The NRA told Ryan that over that same period, restaurant average sales rose only 33 percent, meaning in the organization's view health insurance was  eating up a higher percentage of each restaurant dollar. 

"We support passage of the American Health Care Act to move us toward reforming the employer mandate and we encourage Members of Congress to support this bill," Simpson said in her letter. This site is currently working to obtain additional reaction from industry players on the act and will continue to report on the issue as it moves forward. 

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