A year later, Republicans' American Health Care Act is a nightmare for small businesses

In June of 2009, when we went to testify before Congress about the need for a health care bill that benefits small business, there was this idea that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) might pass even before we got there.  In reality, it took nine more months before it finally passed.

One year ago this week, a majority of the House of Representatives, including representatives Rod Blum, David Young and Steve King, voted for and passed the so-called “American Health Care Act,” or AHCA, an ACA repeal bill that would have cut coverage, increased costs and eliminated protections for more than 100,000 Iowans.

They proved that they are willing to play political games with Iowa’s health care, including thousands of small businesses, farmers, entrepreneurs and the self-employed in their very own districts.  

President Trump and Republicans say they support small businesses, the economic backbone and job creators of communities across the country and in Iowa, often citing “The American Dream.” But health insurance is causing us nightmares.  The AHCA is taking us back to the days when insurance companies made all the rules, eliminating the requirement that insurers cover basic health benefits like prescription drugs, preventive services and maternity care. It's letting insurers charge people with pre-existing conditions whatever they want and allowing women and older people to be charged more than men and young people. 

During the nine months between when we testified and the ACA became law, it turned into a partisan battle.  In June of 2009, the thinking was there were already 60 positive votes in the Senate, and then the August recess happened. That’s when the wheels fell off, and the opposition made it all about "government intrusion" and "socialism" and "pulling the plug on Grandma."

Mike Draper, owner of Raygun: Trump’s "nobody knew how complicated health care was" comment made me want to raise my hand and say, "Oh, I actually knew how complicated health care was."  I’ve gone through every phase of health care, from uninsured, insurance through my wife, an individual policy that I paid for, and now through Raygun on our group insurance.  The group insurance that we have is one part of the ACA, which allowed small businesses to buy into larger groups and still have options within those groups.  There is a lot of focus on the larger issues — preexisting conditions and the individual mandate, but there are a lot of small parts of the ACA that everyday businesses actually use.

ReShonda Young, owner of Popcorn Heaven:  When I started with the fight for the ACA, I was actually running my dad’s small businesses, and Popcorn Heaven didn’t exist.  We had been searching for insurance for years, and preexisting conditions were the biggest stumbling block. When I opened Popcorn Heaven in 2014, I was grateful to have an affordable health insurance option for my employees. To go back to where we started from doesn’t make any sense.  Our members of Congress need to start making some smart decisions and repealing the Affordable Care Act is NOT one.  It is putting us into a tailspin.

This is a complex problem involving a lot of people and whether it’s from the left or right, as small business owners, we need a viable solution. The ACA wasn’t something that President Obama just conjured up, to try out and see how it worked. It was the No. 1 issue that the left and right were campaigning on in 2008.  It became this monster issue to be tackled. It wasn’t a pet project. 

It was the first step, and it still is. 

ReShonda Young, of Waterloo, testified before the House Committee on Education and Labor on June 23, 2009.

Mike Draper, of Des Moines, testified before the House Committee on Ways and Means on June 24, 2009.