As previously reported, § 2001 of the 2017 budget bill required all ACA repeal/replace bills to be filed and reported from assigned committees by Friday, January 27, 2017. That didn’t happen. Since our last posting, the bills listed below have been filed and assigned to committees, but no ACA bill has emerged from committee in either chamber.
H.R. 661 and H.R. 633 would grandfather as “minimum essential coverage” small group market health insurance plans that filed to meet the MEC criteria established by HHS under the ACA.
H.R. 640 would require states with failed ACA Exchanges to return unused federal funds.
H.R. 628 would preserve from ACA repeal the prohibition of pre-existing condition exclusions.
S.222 is Senator Rand Paul’s repeal and replace bill.
S. 194 (Sen. Whitehouse, D-RI) and H.R. 635 (Rep. Schankowsky, D-IL) revive debate over the “public option” that Congressional Democrats rejected when they passed the ACA in 2010.
S. 191 would permit states to opt-out of certain ACA health insurance market reforms and to substitute their own plans and programs.
On January 26, the House Budget Committee held a hearing titled, “The Failures of Obamacare: Harmful Effects and Broken Promises.” The House Committee on Education and the Workforce scheduled a February 1 hearing titled, “”Rescuing Americans from the Failed Health Care Law and Advancing Patient-Centered Solutions.”
The Senate Budget Committee also set a February 1 hearing on CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook, to be held at the same time as the Senate H.E.L.P Committee hearing titled, “Obamacare Emergency: Stabilizing the Individual Health Insurance Market.”
A Congressional Budget Office report (p.35) forecasts that repeal of the ACA medical device tax, health insurance provider fee and Cadillac plan tax would boost the deficit by $311 billion over ten years. A separate CBO report, requested by Senate Democrats, estimates the insurance market consequences of repealing certain ACA taxes, fees and subsidies without repealing other ACA insurance market reforms.
Meanwhile, back at the IRS, a few new details were added January 18 to the FAQ guidance page for Applicable Large Employers. Here’s what caught our eyes, reading from Q55 to Q 58.
From Q55:
The IRS will contact ALEs that filed Forms 1094-C and 1095-C by letter to inform them of their potential liability, if any. These letters will provide ALEs an opportunity to respond to the IRS before any liability is assessed or notice and demand for payment is made. (These letters are separate from the letters that the IRS may send to employers that appear to be ALEs but have not satisfied the requirement to file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C.).
From Q56 (emphasis ours):
The IRS expects that the letters informing ALEs that filed Forms 1094-C and 1095-C of their potential liability for an employer shared responsibility payment for the 2015 calendar year (with reporting in 2016) will be issued beginning in early 2017.
For future years, the IRS expects it will begin issuing letters informing ALEs that filed Forms 1094-C and 1095-C of their potential liability for an employer shared responsibility payment, if any, in the latter part of each calendar year in which reporting was due (for example, in late 2018 for reporting in 2018 for coverage in 2017).
From Q 57 (emphasis ours):
The IRS expects to publish guidance of general applicability describing the employer shared responsibility payment procedures in the Internal Revenue Bulletin before sending any letters to ALEs for the 2015 calendar year. In addition, the IRS expects to supplement that guidance in several different ways, widely distributing the information to ensure that ALEs are properly informed of when and how the IRS will be contacting them.
So, we’re watching the IRB daily. However, that guidance was posted before the President issued Executive Order 13765 (January 20, 2017), directing each ACA enforcement agency to –
exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act that would impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications.
We have found no IRS or Treasury Department statement of how the Order may change the January 18 FAQ guidance, but the guidance has not been removed from the IRS web page.
