(Image: Allison Bell/ALM)
Congress may be about to write off about $348 billion in tax revenue streams related to the Affordable Care Act that, as a body, it was not especially eager to collect.
Congress has included two major ACA revenue raiser repeal provisions in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (FCAA 2020) package.
One provision would repeal the ACA "annual fee on health insurance providers," which is also known as the health insurer tax. That could cost the federal government about $197 billion in revenue from 2020 through 2029, according to analysts at the Joint Committee on Taxation, a congressional budget analysis service.
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Health insurer tax repeal is in Section 502 in Title I — Health and Human Services Extenders. Title I — Health and Human Services Extenders is part of FCAA 2020 Division N.
The other provision on track to be cut is the "40% excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage," which is popularly known as the Cadillac plan tax. Permanently killing the Cadillac plan tax could eliminate about $151 billion in revenue over 10 years, according to the budget analysts.
Cadillac plan tax repeal is in Section 503 of FCAA 2020 Division N, Title I.
Although the two FCAA 2020 provisions could be costly in terms of what budget analysts have included in official federal budget analyses, they may not have much real impact on federal government revenue.
