Political Quotes

“I thank Congresswoman DelBene for her leadership managing this bill and the Ways and Means Committee for embracing it. Their advocacy sends a powerful message to the House to pass the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019. I also thank my friend, Representative Mike Kelly, for his bipartisan support of the bill, defying the polarized politics that too often dominates the healthcare debate. Madam Speaker, this bill today comes with the support of more than 660 healthcare groups that represent millions of Americans who have joined together to repeal the 40 percent excise tax on health plans scheduled to go into effect in 2022. Madam Speaker, this tax was a late add-on to the Affordable Care Act deliberations and has been rattling around inoperable in the Federal Tax Code since 2010, never actually having collected a penny of revenue but, nonetheless, casting a statutory shadow over 180 million Americans' health plans, which we know, from HR administrators and employee reps in real life, has added pressure to shift coverage into higher deductible plans, which falls on the backs of working Americans. As the Commonwealth Fund recently reported, the number of Americans who are underinsured as a result of high deductibles has grown by over 50 percent since 2005. The Kaiser Family Foundation just reported that 31 percent of employer health plans will get hit by the excise tax in 2022, and that number will skyrocket soon after.…”