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Stop auto-enrollment requirement

Summer is here, and many of us will head to New Hampshire’s lakes, mountains and the Seacoast for some fun in the sun and relaxation. The tourism industry, plus the many jobs and revenue it generates, are very important to our state. But while you’re enjoying your getaway this year, you should know that Washington is preparing to unleash something that will threaten the tourism business – and many other businesses, too.

The old Congress put business owners and operators in a precarious situation with something called the automatic enrollment provision contained in last year’s massive healthcare reform law.

The old Nancy Pelosi congressional leadership insisted all Americans have health insurance coverage. They were so insistent, they wound up intruding into the affairs of private businesses. The national healthcare reform overhaul they wrote (officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) contains a provision saying, businesses with more than 200 employees must automatically “enroll new full-time employees” into one of that company’s healthcare plans while continuing “the enrollment of current full-time employees,” as well.

Think about the implications of that for a minute. Consider New Hampshire’s tourism industry. It relies on a seasonal work force with a fluid employee base – for example, college students work full-time during summer break who return to school in the fall – so the employee turnover is high.

Under the current law, starting in 2014 businesses must automatically enroll every full-time worker into a health insurance program, then turn around and remove them when they stop working a short time later. Think how much time that will take, and how much money it will divert from the company’s bottom line to pay for filling out, filing and processing all that paperwork. That could result in higher prices for customers. And when prices go up, business goes down. Restaurant owners will be forced to trim their work forces by laying off employees.

It doesn’t stop with the tourism industry. The automatic enrollment provision places a heavy burden on all businesses that rely on a frequently changing work force, such as restaurants, hotels and motels and others.

Businesses shouldn’t be penalized because of the government’s intrusion into their affairs. So I’m trying to stop it from happening.

I have introduced H.R. 2206, the Auto Enroll Repeal Act of 2011. It rights the wrong that was included in the original healthcare reform law by repealing the automatic enrollment provision and will save jobs at the time when they’re needed the most.

Thirteen of my colleagues in the House have signed on as original co-sponsors. I am proud to report the bill has been endorsed by the National Restaurant Association, too.

When I ran for Congress last year, I said we shouldn’t be judged on the legislation we passed, but by the legislation we repeal. One of the very first votes I cast after taking office in January was for a bill to repeal the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The healthcare reform law was well-intentioned, but it was seriously flawed, too. The original bill to repeal that law remains stalled in the Senate. But we are moving ahead with dismantling the more onerous parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, one provision at a time.

For instance, we were able to repeal the law’s wildly unpopular and terribly unfair 1099 provision. It mandated businesses to file forms to the IRS for every vendor with which they have at least $600 in transactions for purchases of goods. This requirement would have imposed a huge compliance burden on small businesses, forcing them to devote even more resources to the tax preparation process and away from job creation and expansion.

Just as we won that fight, we can win the battle to repeal the automatic enrollment provision, too.

U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta represents New Hampshire District 1 in Washington D.C. His column, “Frankly Speaking” can be read in the Merrimack Journal and Bedford Journal twice a month. He can be contacted in Washington at 1223 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515 or by phone at 1-202-225-5456. His New Hampshire office is at 33 Lowell St., Manchester, NH 03101 or 641-9536. Guinta can also be reached via e-mail by visiting https://guinta.house.gov/contact-me. You can also follow what he’s doing 24/7 on Facebook at www.facebook.com/repfrankguinta and on Twitter at @RepFrankGuinta.