Reading the House-passed health-care-reform bill, it does seem that its drafters worried that requiring individuals and employers to buy health insurance could impose a financial hardship. Today, if you get in a financial bind, you can make the tough choice to drop health insurance. After health-care reform, that option may not exist.
Here’s what the House bill does about potential hardship. Individuals get an out; employers don’t. Section 501 adds a new section to the Internal Revenue Code, Section 59B, which provides “a waiver . . . in cases of hardship, including a process for applying for such a waiver.” Employers, which includes big business, small business, and non-profits, don’t get a waiver. They get a study. See Section 416, “Study on Employer Hardship Exemption.”
There’s to be a study “to examine the impact of the employer responsibility requirements . . . and make a recommendation to Congress about whether an employer hardship exemption would be appropriate.”