Cárdenas Applauds Quick Senate Passage Of PACE Act
Cárdenas Applauds Quick Senate Passage Of PACE Act
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-San Fernando Valley, Calif.), a member of the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, applauded the unanimous passage of H.R. 1624, the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act through the United States Senate.
The legislation, which passed out of the House on Monday, will now go to President Obama to be signed into law.
Once signed by President Obama, the PACE Act will protect smaller employers from increased regulations and allow those employees to keep their current health insurance plans. The legislation was originally introduced by U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kent.) and Rep. Cárdenas in March earlier this year.
“Bipartisanship is a must, if we are going to make the Affordable Care Act a better law and help the American people, particularly small businesses,” said Cárdenas. “This law will help our economy, it will create certainty for small businessowners and it will hopefully stop any rate increase for employees. I applaud the Senate, particularly Sens. Shaheen and Scott, for acting quickly and putting this legislation on the President’s desk.”
The small group market is currently defined as 1-50 employees. Without action, that definition is set to expand to 1-100 employees on January 1, 2016. If it were to take effect, employers with 51-100 employees would not be able to keep their current health care plans or purchase or renew plans that do not conform to the new, more onerous, regulations. By being subject to the new mandates, it is anticipated that health care plan rates will dramatically increase.
H.R. 1624 prevents these catastrophic scenarios by allowing states to decide to maintain the definition of the small group markets as employers with 1-50 employees.
-30-