Last week, White House economic advisers revealed that President Barack Obama would include an adjustment to the Cadillac tax in his 2017 budget proposal, but critics of the tax are not impressed, saying a full repeal is the only viable option, according to an article from Bloomberg.
Obama's budget would raise the threshold at which plans are subject to the tax in states with higher healthcare costs, which would mean fewer employers would pay the tax. The National Business Group on Health told Bloomberg that it appreciated Obama's acknowledgment that the tax "has flaws and targets employees even in modest plans," but it still wants the levy repealed.
The Obama administration maintains that the tax is in place to give large employers more incentive to provide affordable insurance plans for their employees by promoting innovative ways to pay doctors and hospitals and negotiating for better prices from insurers and providers.
But, as FierceHealthPayer has reported, employers have complained that a uniform limit on the value of health insurance benefits will not take into account the higher cost of health insurance in some regions of the country.
"The Cadillac tax is bad policy," Neil Trautwein, vice president of healthcare policy at the retail group, The National Retail Federation, said by e-mail to Bloomberg. "The answer to healthcare costs is with providers, not the purchasers of care or coverage."
Candidate Hillary Clinton says she opposes the tax, and one budget analyst tells Bloomberg that if the tax is not repealed before the end of Obama's term, unions will side with Clinton and her plan to eliminate it.
To learn more:
- read the Bloomberg article