Source: Tom Doheny Communications Director, Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, 8/1/14
Ellmers Introduces Bill to Protect Farmers from Obamacare Penalty
H.R. 5392 – The Fairness for Farmers Act - Will Protect Employers and Consumers
From Penalties and Economic Losses Due to the Affordable Care Act
WASHINGTON
– Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) released the following
statement this afternoon after introducing H.R. 5392 – The Fairness for
Farmers Act of 2014:
“Over
the past decade, food prices have soared by as much as $210 per family*
while the economy has failed to gain significant traction. Meanwhile,
Obamacare
penalties will hurt our farmers and their businesses through the
employer mandate – which has led to food prices to skyrocket and caused
farmers to cut back
on production and jobs.”
“To
help alleviate these burdens, protect jobs and prevent rising food
prices, I have introduced the Fairness to Farmers Act. This bill will
protect our farmers so they can continue
to put food on our table and our families will be able to afford it.”
This
afternoon, Congresswoman Ellmers introduced H.R. 5392 - The Fairness
for Farmers Act of 2014. Under the Affordable Care Act, employers are
required to provide health insurance to
all workers of a business that employs more than 50 “full-time
equivalent” workers. This wide-ranging mandate includes seasonal
agricultural workers in its calculation when determining if a business
is required to provide health insurance or pay a penalty.
This is another just another example of the unintended consequences of
this poorly-conceived law.
Subjecting
farmers who use the H-2A visa program to the employer mandate will have
a detrimental effect on an industry that depends on our guest worker
programs. The H-2A program is already
overly-complicated and expensive. Farmers have to pay recruitment
costs, visa fees, transportation, and housing on top of offering the
Adverse Effect Wage Rate (a minimum wage meant to prevent U.S. workers
from being disadvantaged). To add healthcare costs
or penalties to this would make many farming operations unprofitable.
Furthermore, labor-intensive crops will be disproportionately harmed,
and many farmers may simply halt their operations.
North
Carolina is the number one producer of sweet potatoes and tobacco in
the country. These crops require labor-intensive work and subjecting
farmers to the employee mandate will cause
significant economic consequences for the state and the economy. The
mandate will also adversely affect other specialty crops such as melons,
berries and cucumbers. Moreover, it would be hard to claim that the
Affordable Care Act was meant to cover foreign
nationals – who, by their very nature, are here as temporary visa
workers. This was never the intention and The Fairness for Farmers Act
will immediately address this unfair burden to our nation’s food
producers.
*According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/CRC/crc2012.pdf
Click Here
to view H.R. 5392 - The Fairness for Farmers Act |