WASHINGTON (October 8, 2015) -  As a member of the 50-100 Coalition, which supports small businesses and works to protect affordable coverage for employees, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) applauds the White House for repairing a flaw in the Affordable Care Act that will prevent premium increases for small businesses. On Wednesday, President Obama signed the bipartisan Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) into law, which allows states to keep the current definition of a small group market as 50 or fewer employees or expand the definition of the small group market to include groups up to 100 employees. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had also recently scored the PACE Act as saving $400 million over 10 years.

With 92 percent of lodging properties in the United States owned by franchisees and small businesses, we applaud the swift action by both chambers of Congress and the White House to sign this important bill into law, said AH&LA's Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Vanessa Sinders. The law will help ensure small businesses avoid drastically higher premiums and keep their health plans, which provides the much-needed relief and certainty for these businesses to effectively operate and succeed.

The 50-100 Coalition, of which AH&LA is a member of, has been working with House and Senate members to ensure passage of this important bill.