Senator Scott Statement on PACE Act Being Signed Into Law

Charleston, SC – U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) released the following statement on the President signing the Protecting Affordable Care for Employees (PACE) Act into law. Scott sponsored the Senate version of the bill (S. 1099), with Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) introducing the House version (H.R. 1624).

“With the PACE Act quickly signed into law, we have taken a great step forward in protecting small and mid-sized businesses from the harmful effects of Obamacare. I want to thank my House colleague Representative Brett Guthrie (R-KY) for his important work on the PACE Act, and all of our cosponsors for their support.

I am pleased we were able to stop the growth of Obamacare and block implementation of this harmful rule. I remain committed to a full repeal of the health care law, and will keep working to find solutions that put doctors and patients in charge – not the federal government.”

Prior to passage of the PACE Act,the Affordable Care Act called for the definition of the state based small group markets to change from 50 to include employers with up to 100 employees on January 1, 2016. This change would have required many small and mid-sized businesses to be subject to different rating rules and requirements, with the potential of increasing the health insurance premiums for small businesses, their employees and their families.

According to a recent report, if the small group definition had moved to 100, premiums could have increased by approximately 18 percent for a majority of the mid-sized employers.As a result, many employers may have chosen to self-insure instead of remain in the small group market because those employers would have no longer been subject to the various requirements of the small group market. This could have further increased the premiums for those left in the newly expanded risk pool.

The PACE Act is backed by a coalition representing small and mid-sized businesses, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, and has bipartisan support from state regulators and health policy experts.

Senator Scott serves on the Senate Health, Small Business and Finance committees.