Marino All-in for Another Vote to Chip Away at Obamacare

Press Release

Congressman Tom Marino, PA-10, Lycoming County signed on as an original cosponsor to H.R. 30 - Save American Workers Act of 2015 which passed the House today with a bipartisan vote of 252-172. This bill is virtually identical to H.R. 2575 which passed last spring in the 113th Congress. The current bill repeals Obamacare's definition of a full time employee as someone who works an average of 30 hours per week and replaces it with a traditional 40 hour per week definition.

Obamacare requires employers with 50 or more full time employees to provide health insurance or pay a tax penalty if they refuse to do so. Hence the definition of a full time employee was required within the Obamacare legislation.

Under the current law, employers who cannot offer health insurance for their employees are penalized $2,000 multiplied by the total number of their employees. There are also some exemptions and technicalities which complicate an employers' ability to determine if their offered coverage is acceptable under the law which puts business owners at more risk for penalties, costs and distractions from economic productivity.

Since Obamacare has gone into effect, the Obama Administration has delayed this employer mandate several times for each full time employee classification range in the past two years. These delays are widely seen as an acknowledgement of the employer mandate's ineffectiveness, lack of clarity and harm to businesses trying to flourish in a globally competitive economy.

Congressman Marino said the following of this legislation:

"This bill is another chunk taken out of Obamacare's ridiculously burdensome and invasive provisions. We have tried comprehensive repeals before but now it is time to systematically dismantle the law and give employers the clarity and confidence needed to grow.

I supported this legislation last Congress and I am an original cosponsor this Congress. In nearly every corner of my district, folks are trying to start or maintain small businesses. But some are deterred from growth for fear of large monetary penalties from their federal government.

Obamacare does very little to make employer provided healthcare affordable. Instead it strangles smaller employers, many without the capital to provide insurance to employees at their current stage in their business development plans."

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