“It could have meant higher deductibles for
employees or less choice,” said Cynthia Cox,
who leads research on the Obama health law
at the Kaiser Foundation. Repeal will “have a
positive effect on a lot of people with health
insurance coverage.”
But critics said taxpayers will be on the hook
for more debt, since repeal of the Cadillac tax
and two other unpopular “Obamacare” levies
is estimated to add about $400 billion to the
federal deficit over 10 years.
“The Cadillac tax may have resulted in some
modest cost increases when it took effect, but
what it was actually going to do is reduce health
care costs, which would have raised wages,” said
Marc Goldwein, of the nonpartisan Committee for
a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates
for reining in the nation’s $1-trillion deficit.
Here’s an overview of some of the other major
health care components of the budget deal:
— Also repeals the health law’s health insurance
tax and its sales tax on medical devices. These
taxes were intended to help pay for the cost
of expanding coverage under the health law,
which currently provides insurance to about 20
million people. Even without these taxes, most
of the law’s financing stays in place.
—Blocks the Trump administration from issuing
regulations that would end the health law’s
automatic re-enrollment provision, or from
shutting down a state-level workaround called
“silver loading,” which has helped stabilize
“Obamacare”premiums.
—Extends and increases Medicaid funding for
U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico.