Rep.: Allows Americans To Save $$$
Rep. Bob Turner voted in support of H.R. 436, the Health Care Cost Reduction Act of 2012, which will repeal a medical device tax included in the health care reform law enacted in 2010.
The bill, according to Turner, allows Americans to keep the unused money in their flexible spending accounts and eliminates insurance subsidy overpayments.
“This bill will save thousands of jobs, ensure that Americans are able to keep more of their hard-earned money, and reduce the deficit,” Turner said. “We cannot let the government takeover of healthcare bankrupt our country.”
Beginning in 2013, the health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2010 institutes a 2.3 percent excise tax on the manufacture or import of certain “medical devices.” One study which Turner cited concluded the tax could result in job losses in excess of 43,000 and employment compensation losses in excess of $3.5 billion.
Under the cafeteria plan rules, which apply to Flexible Spending Accounts funded with pre-tax contributions from payroll deductions, an employee must forfeit any remaining balance in the cafeteria plan at the end of the year (which may include a grace period of up to two-and-a-half months at the beginning of the following year).
Turner said the health care law fails to adequately protect taxpayers from overpayments of health insurance exchange subsidies, even in the case of fraud. If an overpayment was made, the recipient is required to repay some or all of the overpayment, subject to certain limits.
This provision would require those who receive exchange subsidies to which they are not entitled to repay the full amount of overpayments.
Overall, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the bill would decrease the deficit by $6.7 billion over the 2013-2022 periods.
