Stop Government Mandates from Hurting Small Business & Their Employees

For the majority of Texas small businesses, providing health insurance is becoming less a question of which plan to offer and more a question of whether they can afford to offer coverage at all.

That needs to change. Texas ranks third in the nation for expensive, unfunded government healthcare mandates, ahead of California, maintaining approximately 50 state healthcare mandates beyond the Affordable Care Act, compared with a national average of 38. 

Governor Greg Abbott has proposed an Essential Benefits Health Insurance Plan that would give Texas employers a new, more affordable option. For instance, a small employer struggling with rapidly rising premiums could now choose a plan that is federally compliant but without the added cost of every state mandate.

The Governor’s plan is fundamentally a free-market Texas approach to healthcare: more competition, more choices and lower costs.

Texans for Affordable Healthcare strongly supports this approach, and we urge lawmakers to make it a priority when they return to Austin in January.

The idea is simple: health insurance shouldn't be one-size-fits-all, especially when more affordable options are needed.

According to the Governor's estimates, this approach could reduce premiums by close to 20%. A typical family could save roughly $1,150 per year, while small businesses could save more than $3,400 per employee annually.

For a business with 20 employees, that's potentially tens of thousands of dollars a year that could instead go toward hiring workers, raising wages, investing in the business or simply making it possible to continue providing health coverage.

The Legislature had an opportunity to move in this direction last session. House Bill 139, authored by Rep. Jay Dean, would have allowed employers to purchase health benefit plans that did not include every state-mandated benefit. The legislation stalled in the House.

Lawmakers should finish the job in 2027.

There is no question that some of the mandated coverage beyond the ACA are well-intended but mandates come at a cost, and Texas employers and families ultimately pay it through higher premiums or no insurance altogether

Governor Abbott has put a serious affordability proposal on the table. When the Legislature convenes in January, lawmakers should support it and give Texas small businesses the affordable health coverage options they desperately need.