Who could have imagined? A bill supporting veterans where the theme is, “veterans shouldn’t count!” But there it is.
The Hire More Heroes Act, created as an incentive for small businesses to hire veterans, effectively provides that veterans receiving TRICARE or VA medical care should not be counted for purposes of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA requires employers of 50 or more full-time employees to provide qualified health insurance. The bill would exclude veterans receiving health care benefits from this count.
In other words, if a company has 55 employees, but 7 of those employees are veterans with TRICARE coverage, the company would have only 48 employees for purposes of the ACA and therefore not be required to provide a company-wide healthcare plan. This provides an incentive for companies with around 50 employees to hire veterans, because they will avoid crossing the threshold that requires them to provide health insurance coverage.
Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis first introduced the Hire More Heroes Act in November of 2013, and it passed the House twice last Congress. H.R. 3474 first passed the House by a vote of 406-1 on March 11, 2014 and again as part of a broad, bipartisan jobs package called the Jobs for America Act on September 18, 2014. After the bill failed to become law as part of these larger packages, Davis reintroduced the bill again in 2015. Considering that the bill’s (technically, it is a “joint resolution”) provisions amount to no more than four pages, this has certainly simplified the process. And indeed, it sailed through the House on July 25, 2015 and was scheduled for a Senate hearing on August 24, 2015.
It’s hard to know how many businesses or veterans will be affected by this bill. After all, how many businesses hover right around the threshold of 50 employees? This bill will likely most affect those businesses that are actively veteran friendly, including veteran-owned businesses; where a large proportion of the employee population is veterans.
The disadvantage, of course, is that non-veteran employees of these companies are left without insurance coverage. Given that insurance coverage is more expensive than ever, this will cost these individuals thousands of dollars a year; and this will also make these businesses less attractive to prospective non-veteran employees.
If you want to see what comes of this, you can access more information and track the bill here.
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It just goes to show what a disastrous venture Obama Care was, but I can see this becoming an issue down the road. Either way, if it helps vets get jobs…. I am mostly okay with it.