HLS 15RS-462 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 87
BY REPRESENTATIVE HARRISON
CONGRESS: Memorializes the United States Congress to amend the employer shared
responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act to eliminate penalties on school
districts
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to amend
3 the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Patient Protection and
4 Affordable Care Act to eliminate penalties on school districts.
5 WHEREAS, a highly contentious aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable
6Care Act (Public Law 111-148), referred to hereafter as "the ACA", is its imposition of
7financial penalties on employers known as "employer shared responsibility"; and
8 WHEREAS, the employer shared responsibility penalty applies to certain businesses
9with fifty or more full-time employees that either do not offer insurance, or offer coverage
10which does not meet minimum standards set forth in the ACA; and
11 WHEREAS, after nearly four years of delays and regulatory uncertainty regarding
12application of the employer shared responsibility penalty following enactment of the ACA
13in March of 2010, the Internal Revenue Service, in its final regulations on the penalty issued
14in February of 2014 (79 Fed. Reg. 8544 (February 22, 2014)), provided that there is no
15exclusion from the penalty for government entities; and
16 WHEREAS, for purposes of the penalty, a "full-time employee" is now defined as
17any employee working an average of more than thirty hours per week or one hundred thirty
18hours per month; and
19 WHEREAS, because many part-time and temporary school personnel count as "full-
20time employees" under the ACA, the school districts of this state now face crippling
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HCR NO. 87
1financial penalties, typically in the amount of two thousand dollars per employee who lacks
2health coverage, for not providing health coverage to personnel who traditionally have not
3been considered full-time employees.
4 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
5memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to amend the
6shared responsibility provisions regarding employee health coverage under Section 4980H
7of the Internal Revenue Code, as enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
8to eliminate penalties on school districts.
9 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
10presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
11United States of America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 87 Original 2015 Regular Session Harrison
Memorializes congress to amend the employer shared responsibility provisions regarding
employee health coverage enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to
eliminate penalties on school districts.
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