Washington, DC – U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today announced that
bipartisan legislation introduced in November to incentivize small businesses
to hire veterans while at the same time providing them relief from the
Affordable Care Act will be headed to the floor of the U.S. House for a vote on
Tuesday.
H.R. 3474, the Hire More Heroes
Act, incentivizes small businesses to hire veterans by exempting veterans
who already receive health insurance through the Department of Veterans Affairs
or reservists covered under TRICARE from being counted towards the number of
employees required by the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act. The
employer mandate is a requirement that all businesses with more than 50
full-time employees provide health insurance to their employees or pay a fee.
“We know offering health care is
costly for small businesses and the employer mandate in Obamacare has forced
many to delay hiring, cut hours and in some cases reduce their payroll at a
time when our economy is struggling to recover,” said Davis. “The Hire
More Heroes Act gives our small businesses another incentive to hire veterans,
which helps to address the increasing number of unemployed veterans, while
providing them with some relief from Obamacare.”
The legislation currently has 26
co-sponsors and is supported by the Enlisted Association of the National Guard
of the United States (EANGUS), the only military service association
representing the interests of every enlisted soldier and airmen in the Army and
Air National Guard, and The Retired Enlisted Association, a
Congressionally-charted veterans’ service organization and the largest
association in the nation of enlisted retirees and veterans from all branches
of the Armed Forces.
“This legislation will give
employers, especially small businesses, even more incentive to hire veterans
and members of the National Guard, and Reservists,” said Al Garver,
Executive Director of EANGUS.
Bradley A. Lavite, Superintendent
of the Madison County Veteran's Assistance Commission, came up with the idea
for the legislation and had it shared with Rep. Davis at a Veterans Advisory
Board meeting on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in
November.
“Prior to the ACA enrollment going
into place in October, I started educating veterans on how the health care law
does not change their VA health benefits or out-of-pocket costs and that the VA
medical benefits met the minimum standard under the law,” said Lavite.
“At the same time, I was also educating service members on the importance of
signing up for TRICARE to ensure that they had coverage for themselves and
their families in order to be in compliance with the law. It was during this
period that I began noticing that unemployed veterans and service members who
are enrolled in VA medical benefits and TRICARE, as well as the small
businesses that hire them, could really benefit from a piece of legislation.
Therefore, Hire More Heroes was proposed as part a veterans’ employment, health
care and small business development initiative.”
Currently, there are 8 million veterans
receiving health care through the VA system, and every service member returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan has the option of signing up for health care through
the VA.
“A survey done by the U.S. Chamber
found that 71 percent of small businesses say Obamacare makes it harder for
them to hire more employees,” said Davis. “It only makes sense to exempt
veterans receiving health care through the VA from Obamacare’s employer mandate
since they are clearly covered elsewhere and do not need employer-provided
insurance.”
According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, unemployment among veterans is at 6.3 percent, slightly lower than
the national average. However, veterans who have served since 9/11 are facing a
much higher unemployment rate of 9.2 percent.
“We know our military receives
some of the best training in the world which produces skills that will benefit
civilian employers,” said Davis. “In fact, data recently released by the
advisory company CEB shows veterans offer 4 percent greater productivity and
they are more likely to stay at a company longer than their non-veteran peers.
This is a commonsense piece of legislation that will help our veterans find
work and assist small businesses in hiring qualified, well-trained employees
while providing much-needed relief from Obamacare and I urge each of my
colleagues to support the bill when it’s called for a vote on Tuesday.”
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