Repealing the 40% excise tax on “generous” employer sponsored health insurance plans is The Council’s top legislative priority, and we’re now asking for your help. Congress is expected to adjourn for the year on December 11 and we’re working hard to include a repeal of the excise tax in legislation before they leave town. To do so, we need Members of Congress to express their support to House and Senate leadership for repealing the tax, and we need your help to make that happen.
Contact your MOC
Please call your Member of Congress at 202-224-3121 and urge them to support legislation to repeal the tax as part of any year-end spending or tax legislation considered by the two chambers. You can reference these talking points during your conversation. If you would rather send an email or a letter, feel free to utilize this draft text. Contact information for your Members of Congress can be found at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
Quick Summary
As you know the excise tax, i.e. Cadillac Tax, is effective in 2018 on health insurance plans exceeding premium payments of $10,200 for individuals or $27,500 for families. The tax was intended to target high-end, generous health plans. But by almost every measure, these thresholds don’t exclusively capture high-end plans, and a significant amount of Americans will soon be recipients of insurance benefit plans that aren’t so beneficial if the tax is left unchanged.
Why We Need Your Help
Some Council members suggest that 50% of their clients will be hit with the 40% tax in 2018. Because the threshold is so low, a lot of average sized plans will be hit with the tax off the bat, and since medical inflation is adding to rising costs every year, premiums spent on these average plans are increasingly likely to hit the threshold every year it is left unchanged.
Thank you for all you do to support or efforts here at The Council, and thank you for considering this message. As always, we’ll keep you posted on developments as they occur. In the meantime, feel free to contact Joel Wood at joel.wood@ciab.com, Joel Kopperud at joel.kopperud@ciab.com for more information.