By Ana Kennedy Otto, Arizona Farm Bureau Government Relations Manager: Last June Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema met with Arizona small business owners to discuss the health insurance tax (HIT Tax) and her ongoing effort to repeal it. Sinema and others are now renewing efforts to stop the HIT.

This tax, a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), increases health insurance costs for farmers and ranchers and other small businesses by taxing the net premiums of health insurance companies. The companies then pass this cost on to consumers who obtain their health insurance through the fully insured market. Congress passed a one-year moratorium so the tax is not being collected in 2017; however, the tax will return in 2018 unless Congress acts to repeal it.

Bipartisan legislation to repeal the Health Insurance Tax (HIT), H.R. 246, has been introduced by Reps. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). Also in support as co-sponsors of the bill from Arizona are Representatives Franks, Schweikert and Biggs.

We would like to see all of Arizona’s Representatives supporting and co-sponsoring H.R. 246. Below is American Farm Bureau’s Action Alert where you can quickly and easily send a message to your Representative.

Special note: As a service, we provide bill tracker - https://www.votervoice.net/AZFB/bills. The bill tracker can always be found on azfb.org by going to the Public Policy page and then clicking on Bill Tracker on the side tab. Once at the bill tracker to switch between state and federal bill tracking, click on “Change Jurisdiction” in the Key Legislation Bar. Clicking on a bill brings up a new window with the following information about the bill: Title, Explanation, Sponsor, and Actions.

For more information, please contact Ana Kennedy Otto at anakennedy@azfb.org.

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