Dive Brief:

• Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Connecticut) unveiled legislation from the House Ways and Means Committee to repeal the excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans scheduled to go into effect in 2018 under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
• The policy, sometimes referred to as the “Cadillac tax,” would apply a 40% tax to health insurance expenditures over $10,200 per person and $27,500 per family—it is one of the most controversial provisions of the healthcare law.
• Repealing the “Cadillac tax” would protect employees from unnecessary benefits cuts, supporters of repeal say.

Dive Insight:

According to an article at Plansponsor.com, Courtney does praise the ACA for great strides in controlling the growth in health care costs through smart reforms in payment models, emphasizing prevention, cancer screenings and wellness checkups—and notes that reining in that growth was the aim of the excise tax provision.

However, he maintains the excise tax is not smart reform, calling it a "flawed, one-size-fits-all penalty that will degrade workers’ benefits, lead employers to choose less-comprehensive plans and force families to pay more out-of-pocket health care costs."

Studies have indicated the tax would have a disproportionate and rapidly increasing impact on older workers, women and workers in high-cost regions, including the Northeast, who could suffer the most disproportionate increases, according to analyses from economists at the Economic Policy Institute, Towers Watson and Milliman.