House Republicans are taking another stab at undoing or postponing parts of Obamacare, according to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
The House will take up measures to undo or delay the employer mandate as well as the “Cadillac” tax on health insurance plans, as it has done several times before since Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, went into effect.
Brady did not offer a timeline on when the measures would be considered. On Wednesday his committee is marking up healthcare bills aimed at healthcare fraud prevention and coordinating care for seniors.
“We are continuing to work with leadership … We have been working this year on trying to provide relief from the Affordable Care Act, especially in areas where it is hurting our local small businesses,” said Brady.
The employer mandate has already been delayed by Congress several times. It originally was intended to go into effect in 2014 and required companies with 50 or more full-time workers provide health insurance or otherwise face a penalty. Small businesses have called it burdensome, arguing that fewer people will be hired or that workers’ hours will be cut. The mandate also defines a “full-time worker” as someone who is employed for 30 hours a week.
The mandate was delayed several times with bipartisan support, but it applied to companies with 100 workers or more beginning in 2015.
The Cadillac tax was intended to target higher-cost, more robust health insurance plans through a 40 percent excise tax. The rationalization for the tax was that plans with fewer benefits tend to shift a greater share of healthcare expenses onto employees, causing them to be more judicious about asking doctors whether appointments or tests are necessary and ultimately reducing financial strain on the medical system.
But advocates of repealing the tax have warned that it would also affect middle-income workers, including teachers and nurses, because the cost of health insurance has continued to grow, not just among companies with generous benefits packages. The tax was intended to go into effect in 2018 but was delayed with support from both Democrats and Republicans. It was delayed again to 2022 as part of a spending bill passed earlier this year.
“We are working with the Republican leadership here in the House on providing relief to employers who are really hamstrung by some of the elements of the Affordable Care Act, including the Cadillac tax, the employer mandate … and the 40-hour workweek, issues like that,” Brady said. “We hope to be able to continue making progress in those areas.”
