ENROLLED
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 87
BY REPRESENTATIVE HARRISON
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to amend
the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act to eliminate penalties on school districts.
WHEREAS, a highly contentious aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (Public Law 111-148), referred to hereafter as "the ACA", is its imposition of
financial penalties on employers known as "employer shared responsibility"; and
WHEREAS, the employer shared responsibility penalty applies to certain businesses
with fifty or more full-time employees that either do not offer insurance or offer coverage
which does not meet minimum standards set forth in the ACA; and
WHEREAS, after nearly four years of delays and regulatory uncertainty regarding
application of the employer shared responsibility penalty following enactment of the ACA
in March of 2010, the Internal Revenue Service, in its final regulations on the penalty issued
in February of 2014 (79 Fed. Reg. 8544 (February 22, 2014)), provided that there is no
exclusion from the penalty for government entities; and
WHEREAS, for purposes of the penalty, a "full-time employee" is now defined as
any employee working an average of more than thirty hours per week or one hundred thirty
hours per month; and
WHEREAS, because many part-time and temporary school personnel count as "full-
time employees" under the ACA, the school districts of this state now face crippling
financial penalties, typically in the amount of two thousand dollars per employee who lacks
health coverage, for not providing health coverage to personnel who traditionally have not
been considered full-time employees.
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to amend the
employer shared responsibility provisions regarding employee health coverage under Section
4980H of the Internal Revenue Code, as enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act, to eliminate penalties on school districts.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
United States of America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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