HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “The Affordable Care Act’s tax on high-cost employer health plans faced sharp opposition from employers and unions. Now, Republicans are drawing equal fire for proposals to replace the law that those groups say would have some of the same effects.
The law’s so-called Cadillac tax is levied on the value of employer health plans above a certain threshold, in part to discourage what backers argue are overly generous plans and high usage of costly care. It is one of the few aspects of the law that Congress has tweaked, delaying its impact until 2020.
Several Republican plans for replacing the law include their own curb on generous health plans: a cap on how much of employer-provided health benefits could be shielded from taxes. Such a cap could force certain workers to start paying income tax on a portion of the cost of their coverage.”
– Anna Wilde Mathews, “Employers Balk at Curbs on Generous Health Plans,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 13, 2017