Beneath the din of the dueling Obamacare and Trumpcare plans,another health care act quietly passed Congress this past December,and new data shows it’s one of the few things Democrats andRepublicans can agree on right now.

Related: 3 HSA facts employers need to know

In particular, left and right have united around one of theact’s provisions — the Small Business Healthcare Relief Act, whichenables small businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employees tooffer stand-alone health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to theirstaff.

At a time when small employers face few options to help theirworkers pay for health insurance, an HRA can be just thetonic. The funds in HRA accounts can be used by employees tooffset health insurance premiums and/or pay for out-of-pocketexpenses, potentially changing the health care picture for thebetter for millions of Americans.

The Small Business Healthcare Relief Act should be consideredwelcome news not only for the small business market but also formuch of our country. Businesses with fewer than 50 workers employapproximately 33 million Americans, accounting for overone-quarter of all private sector jobs in the United States.

In 2013, it was ruled that account-based plans like HRAs did notmeet the health plan requirements outlined in the Affordable CareAct, and the government began imposing hefty fines on businessesthat provided HRAs to employees.

Related: Keeping up with the Joneses: Employer trends inHRA, FSA, & HSA

As a result, small employers had limited options to providehealth insurance to their employees. Most small businesses lack theexpertise and management and financial resources to set up andmaintain a group health plan, and the ACA’s SHOP exchanges were notan effective alternative.

In fact, prior to the passage of the Small Business HealthcareRelief Act, 71 percent of firms with fewer than 50full-time employees didn’t offer health insurance (a 10-point decrease from five years earlier),citing high costs as the No. 1 barrier.

After all, the average premium for an individual employee healthinsurance plan was $2,889 in 2001 ($3,886, adjusting for inflation)but had risen to $5,963 by 2015, according to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

In the five months since the Small Business Healthcare ReliefAct passed into law, opportunities have been opening up for smallbusinesses to resume offering HRAs.

According to a WEX Health survey of health care industry leaders andexperts at its Partner Conference in April, a quarter ofrespondents are currently selling the new small business HRAproducts. A similar percentage (28 percent) plan to start sellingit during open enrollment this year. Those of us at WEX Healthexpect a meaningful uptick in employer adoption will begin to occurin 2018, as more business owners and employees learn about the newlaw.

Though WEX Health’s survey was fielded in the week before theHouse’s vote to pass the American Health Care Act on May 4,one-third of respondents said the current situation in D.C. ishaving a positive impact on their business, while nearly half (47percent) said it is having no impact at all.

The Cures Act has both small business ownersand healthcare industry experts feeling more optimistic abouthealth care and curious about HRAs: Compared to a year ago, morethan half of respondents (56 percent) to our survey are moreoptimistic about the consumer-directed health care market over thenext two to three years.

And more than one-third reported employers want more integrationacross benefits with regard to consumer-directed accounts, while aquarter want more plan design innovation and flexibility (somethingHRAs support).

If you’re an employer, I encourage you to stay informed aboutthese new opportunities. Ask your broker or local business groupabout HRA options. Talk to your employees about their health careoptions, especially during this period of legislative ups anddowns. Small businesses remain the engine of job growth in theU.S., and their owners share many of the same hopes and needs.Taking advantage of this act and supporting millions of U.S.workers are things we can all get behind.