The Affordable Care Act (ACA) remains likely to reduce federal budget deficits substantially in coming years, despite December’s repeal of three ACA taxes. Repealing the excise tax on high-cost health plans (the “Cadillac tax”), the fee on health insurance providers (the “health insurance tax”), and the medical device excise tax will sacrifice hundreds of billions in revenues and marks a...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Enzi-Whitehouse Would Threaten Medicare and Medicaid
December 12, 2019
December 18: We’ve updated this post.
Congress should reject efforts to attach, to end-of-year spending legislation, a bill from the Senate Budget Committee’s Chairman Mike Enzi and member Sheldon Whitehouse that would change the budget process in a highly problematic way and...
Don’t Delay or Repeal Health-Related Taxes
December 9, 2019
As part of year-end tax and spending legislation, Congress may consider delaying or repealing several tax provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA): the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, the fee on health insurance providers (the “health insurance tax”), the excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans (the “Cadillac tax”), and the limitation on using tax-advantaged health...
Don’t Forget Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries When Improving Drug Benefits
September 4, 2019
Low-income Medicare beneficiaries deserve special attention as Congress considers legislation to make prescription drugs more affordable. Important steps include eliminating cost-sharing for generic drugs for low-income beneficiaries and increasing participation in the Part D low-income drug subsidy.
Medicare beneficiaries with incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty level are...
Striking Down ACA Would Weaken Medicare
July 8, 2019
Medicare beneficiaries, providers, and plans could face severe harm if the federal courts allow a district court decision striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to stand. As we...
CBO: Proposed Rule on Medicare, Medicaid Drug Rebates Would Raise Drug Spending
May 9, 2019
The Trump Administration’s proposed rule that would effectively ban drug rebates in Medicare and Medicaid would raise — not reduce — spending on prescription drugs, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says in a new estimate. Drug...
Medicare in the 2020 Trump Budget
March 18, 2019
President Trump’s 2020 budget proposes nearly $600 billion in net Medicare spending reductions over ten years (see table). Most of the proposals...
Policymakers Shouldn’t Repeal or Further Delay “Cadillac Tax”
March 12, 2019
Congress is facing renewed calls to repeal or further delay the “Cadillac tax” — the excise tax on high-cost health plans. That would be unwise for two reasons: it would lose needed revenue and would set back efforts to slow the growth of health care costs.
The Affordable...
More Evidence of Post-ACA Slowdown in Health Care Spending
March 7, 2019
New projections from the Medicare actuaries provide fresh evidence that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has helped slow spending growth throughout the nation’s health care sector.
Under the actuaries’ updated projections of...
