A Texas legislator introduced a state bill that would provide tax breaks to companies who intentionally violate Obama’s health care act by refusing to cover emergency contraception.
The tax break would be the same amount as the federal fine that companies are required to pay for violating the Affordable Health Care Act, or the total amount that companies pay in state taxes.
Freshman state Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R) introduced the bill in the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday in an attempt to protest the implementation of what critics refer to as “Obamacare”. The health care legislation requires company health insurance plans to fully cover employees’ contraception costs – including emergency contraception like the morning-after pill.
The contraception mandate has faced opposition from employers who are morally, religiously, or otherwise opposed to the use and funding of birth control. Stickland, a Christian Republican from Bedford, is a fierce opponent of the contraception mandate and introduced the bill to financially “protect” religious-based businesses from the fines involved in violating Obamacare.
A business that violates the Affordable Care Act faces a $100 penalty fine per employee per day, which could easily cost large companies millions of dollars.
“It is simply appalling that any business owner should have to choose between violating their religious convictions and watching their business be strangled by the strong arm of Federal mandates and taxation,” Strickland said in a statement discussing his measure, House Bill 649.
