NASE Champions Your Small-Business Priorities

• NASE President Robert Hughes Brings Your Health Care Concerns Before House Small Business Committee

• The NASE Works With Bush Administration For Health 
  Care Reform>

• The NASE Represents Your Interests with the IRS

Access to affordable health care and tax reform remain high on the NASE list of legislative priorities. That is why the NASE has been diligently at work to bring these issues to the forefront. For the past few weeks, the NASE has meet with Congress, the administration and the IRS on your behalf. Following are the highlights from those meetings.

NASE President Robert Hughes Brings Your Health Care Concerns Before House Small Business Committee

“According to the General Accounting Office’s October 2001 report on Private Health Insurance, only 36% of employers with fewer than 10 workers offered health coverage to their employees. The report cited the primary reason small employers gave for not offering coverage is cost. This tells us that Congress and the administration must focus efforts on small business access to affordable health care in order to effectively reduce the number of uninsured in our nation,” NASE President Robert Hughes told members of the House Small Business Committee last week.

Hughes outlined a new proposal that would put the self-employed on equal footing with larger companies in regard to deductions for health insurance. Currently, NASE Members pay the self-employment tax for themselves and their dependents, resulting in a tax on health insurance premiums of up to 15.3%. Meanwhile premiums for employer provided plans are not subject to FICA withholding tax. 

Hughes proposed the following measures to make health care more affordable for you:

• Reduce the tax on health insurance premiums by 25% by allowing the self-employed to claim their health care premiums as a business expense.

• Expand Association Health Plans to allow the same economies of scale, purchasing clout and administrative efficiencies now available to large employers

• Offer a refundable tax credit for the unemployed and individuals without access to employer provided insurance

• Give the self-employed the option of a health insurance deduction or refundable tax credit, but not both

• Accelerate the 100% deductibility of health insurance for the self-employed available in years beginning after 2001

The NASE Works With Bush Administration For Health Care Reform 

In the presence of President George W. Bush and other distinguished guests, the National Association for the Self-Employed demonstrated its support for the administration’s health care reform Monday, February 11 at the Coalition for Affordable Health Coverage meeting at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

NASE President Robert Hughes shook Bush’s hand and personally thanked him for his health care agenda.

“Access to affordable health care is a major need for micro-businesses and the president’s vision for health care reform will definitely help meet this important need,” Hughes told reporters following Bush’s address. 

Hughes stressed that the primary reason most self-employed individuals and small-business owners do not have insurance coverage is cost. He pointed out that the proposed health credits as outlined by Bush would be beneficial to micro-businesses. 

Bush proposes $89 billion in new health credits to make private health insurance more affordable for Americans who do not have insurance subsidized by an employer. For details regarding his speech, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/print/20020211-4.html.

The NASE Represents Your Interests with the IRS

Because tax equality is vital for the survival and well being of micro-businesses, the NASE continually seeks ways to clarify and reform the tax code to your advantage. Currently, the NASE is seeking clarification of the independent contractor definition so that the self-employed can easily understand who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. The NASE is maintaining an open line of communication with the Internal Revenue Service by attending a series of forums being held by its Small Business/Self-Employed Division. These forums promote an open dialogue between the small-business community and the IRS. 

For more information, click here to take a look at the website for the Small Business/Self Employed Division, which offers a lot of useful information for the self-employed.

For more information, please contact Kristie L. Darien, NASE Director of Government Affairs, at 202-466-2100 or kdarien@nase.org.