The U.S. Chamber of Commerce president is urging Congress to reform Obamacare beyond changes it already made to the law in the fall.
In a blog post published Monday, President Tom Donohue told lawmakers they should vote to get rid of the law’s requirement for employers to offer health coverage and two of the law’s most contested taxes, one on high-cost health plans and the other on medical devices.
The House has already passed measures repealing the provisions, so now it’s up to the Senate and President Obama. While there is little Democratic support for repealing the employer mandate, a number of Democrats support getting rid of the taxes.
“We urge our nation’s leaders to rally around these common-sense changes to Obamacare — as we now know that they can — and help preserve the employer-based system that is the bedrock of American health care,” Donohue wrote.
When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the chamber urged for it to be repealed. But the major business association has since acknowledged that the law is likely here to stay and is shifting its focus to ways it wants the law changed. The chamber has especially opposed elements of the law it says are unfriendly to businesses.
“While, unfortunately, Obamacare appears here to stay for now, some of its counterproductive mandates undermining the employer-sponsored healthcare system — which provide benefits for more than 160 million Americans — have to go,” Donohue wrote.
But Donohue also applauded recent actions by Congress and the president to repeal two parts of the law. This fall, Obama signed measures halting an expansion of the small group insurance market to include companies with between 51 and 100 employees and another one, included in the budget deal, which eliminates a requirement for employers with more than 200 workers to automatically enroll them into health plans.
