Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawmakers Want To Get Rid Of 'Cadillac Tax' Once And For All. This Time It's Democrats Leading The Charge Though.
The House is set to repeal a tax Wednesday intended to fund the Affordable Care Act, a move that will help preserve tax breaks for private insurance favored by large corporations. And this time, it鈥檚 Democrats leading the charge. The levy, commonly known as the 鈥淐adillac tax,鈥 is a 40% excise tax on the most generous and expensive employer health-insurance plans. It was included in Obamacare as a measure that economists said would help curb health costs. But Congress kept delaying its implementation so the tax has never actually been collected. The levy, commonly known as the 鈥淐adillac tax,鈥 is a 40% excise tax on the most generous and expensive employer health-insurance plans. It was included in Obamacare as a measure that economists said would help curb health costs. But Congress kept delaying its implementation so the tax has never actually been collected. The vote to repeal the tax highlights the conflicting forces pulling at Democrats when campaigning versus legislating. (Davison, 7/17)
For critics of the employer tax exclusion that more or less forged the U.S. insurance system, repeal of the so-called Cadillac tax would kneecap any hope to chip away at the tax break blamed for sacrificing workers' wages for health insurance benefits. The bill from Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) has 367 co-sponsors including progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) who is spearheading the push for single payer. (Luthi, 7/16)
Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley sees a 鈥渓ittle bit of progress鈥 on the tax extenders front in House Democrats鈥 decision to push repeal (HR 748) of聽the "Cadillac" tax on high-cost health insurance plans, without offsets for the lost revenue. The House鈥檚 pay-as-you-go rules have been a hindrance for much of the year on moving legislation to extend tax breaks that expired at the end of 2017 and 2018. The most expensive of those is a provision originally authored by Grassley in 2004 (PL 108-357) to provide a聽$1 per gallon biodiesel blenders tax credit which costs about $3 billion a year. (Sword, 7/16)
