A substantial number of congressional representatives have signed on as co-sponsors to legislation that would repeal certain taxes of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the latest lawmakers coming from Wisconsin.
According to political advocacy and trade association America's Health Insurance Plans, Wisconsin Reps. Sean Duffy, Reid Ribble, Tom Petri and James Sensenbrenner all recently co-sponsored a bill that would nullify a portion of the ACA, a plan that detractors of the law say imposes new sales taxes on coverage as high as $8 billion by 2014 and rising to more than $14.3 billion by 2018. The Joint Committee on Taxation predicts that these taxes will be in excess of $100 billion over the next decade.
Karen Ignagni, CEO and president of AHIP, indicated that the healthcare overhaul is doing precisely what those who supported it said it wouldn't do – raising costs for everyday Americans.
"Taxing health insurance makes it more expensive, and that is the opposite of what health care reform was supposed to accomplish," said Ignagni.
As it pertains to Wisconsin residents and business owners specifically, taxes on premiums and employee benefits will be nearly $2.9 billion over the next decade as a result of the tax, according to a report from the actuarial firm Oliver Wyman, AHIP noted. This equates to an increase of approximately $2,150 for private plan offerings and a cost hike of $6,900 for families who get their coverage through an employer-sponsored policy.
This legislation is part of a larger bill, the Jobs and Premium Protection Act, which was co-signed by more than 50 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives. It's passage would prevent the tax hike from going into effect.
Business owners remain highly perplexed by the ACA. A recent report from the Society of Human Resource Management found that a large percentage of HR managers are having trouble mining through the particulars of the healthcare law, confused by what's required of them, according to BenefitsPro.
