While yesterday’s Supreme Court decision was disappointing, NFIB/CA respects the decision to uphold the individual mandate by the Supreme Court. Clearly this mandate has now become a tax on all Americans and a broken campaign promise from President Obama not to raise taxes.
Even with the disappointing decision, it was still a remarkable day for the small-business community, and for the nation, when it comes to both the protection of freedom and the chance for real health-care reform. As far as NFIB is concerned, our fight for real reform does not end with this ruling. Rather, the court’s ruling on this deeply flawed, highly partisan law creates an historic opportunity for reforms that finally address the high cost of health insurance – the No. 1 health-care challenge for the small-business community.
So what do our members want in healthcare reform? Our membership supports the following solutions: defined contribution plans, equal tax treatment in the individual market, insurance portability, interstate markets for health insurance and malpractice reform. Essentially, power and control should be in the hands of the consumer, not the government.
NFIB has led the effort on a three-pronged approach: legal, regulatory and legislative. Now that the Court has ruled, our effort will focus on regulatory and legislative. This means vigorously commenting on important regulations such as the employer mandate. Legislation exists to repeal these job-harming provisions of the law such as employer mandate and HIT tax.
We have been fighting for meaningful healthcare reform for thirty years – and we aren’t going to stop now. NFIB has a responsibility to our membership to ensure that their concerns are voiced loud and clear to Congress to help make real health-care reform a reality. NFIB will continue to be the loudest voice when it comes to health-care reform that matters and will be working with our membership to show Congress that they must deal with costs.