It’s hard to envision just about anything bi-partisan passing in Congress these days. The US House of Representatives is preparing to vote and pass a repeal to a significant piece of the Affordable Care Act and though it might seem completely unrealistic, it’s true. The so-called “Cadillac Tax” built in to penalize higher-end employer-sponsored healthcare plans is about to be repealed in the US House.
Most of the attention paid to the Affordable Care Act currently centers on the lawsuit that’s attempting to repeal the entire law as unconstitutional since the individual mandate was eliminated by Congress as part of tax reform that passed in 2017. The Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional, due to forced commerce, but could remain if those who didn’t purchase health insurance were penalized with a tax. With the tax now eliminated and a Texas court ruling that the law is unconstitutional, there's a chance the whole thing will go down, should it arrive back at the Supreme Court. But back to the here and now in Congress.
By 2022 when the Cadillac tax is set to kick in, 21% of employer plans would be negatively impacted according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That number would jump to nearly four in ten plans by the end of the decade. Realizing this now, though Democrats ignored this originally, they’ve joined with Republicans and are set to vote to end the tax this week.
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