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Testimony of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Applauding Cutbacks Under Health Care Reform on FSA, HSAs

"The Affordable Care Act ... includes a number of spending reductions and tax increases designed to assure that expanding health coverage does not drive up the deficit. Some provisions limit the use of tax-advantaged accounts to pay for health-related expenses. These limitations make sense both as tax policy and as health policy, and repealing any of them would be unwise."

Text of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Testimony on the Fee on Health Insurance

"All things considered, CBO estimates that health reform will slightly reduce premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the near term.... Claims that the health insurance tax in particular, or health reform in general, will kill jobs are unfounded. CBO foresees a small net reduction in labor supply, primarily because some people who now work mainly to obtain health insurance will choose to retire earlier or work somewhat less, not because employers will eliminate jobs."

President Misleads on Social Security Rate of Return, Says Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Excerpt: As with any type of insurance, a 'rate of return' is an inappropriate standard for measuring the value that these features of Social Security provide. For example, when one buys automobile or homeowners insurance, one is not looking for a good rate of return, since one's money will be returned only if one has an accident or one's home is vandalized or damaged in a fire or other such event.

The Impact of the President's Proposal on Social Security Solvency and the Budget

Excerpt: [T]he White House has not released the traditional analysis by the Social Security actuaries of the effect of its plan on Social Security solvency. It is standard practice for policymakers and outside analysts who present Social Security plans to provide the actuaries' analysis when, or shortly after, they release their plans. In the absence of [that] analysis ..., this analysis provides some of the standard actuarial and fiscal estimates of the President's proposal.

Medicare in the 2021 Trump Budget

"The budget would establish a new payment system for post-acute care, reduce Medicare coverage of bad debts, limit medical malpractice awards, extend through 2030 the 2 percent Medicare sequestration cut under the 2011 Budget Control Act, and pay for all doctor and other outpatient services at the same rate regardless of where they're provided. Most of these proposals also appeared in last year's budget."

Senate Budget Bill Would Reverse Almost All of Health Reform's Coverage Gains

"The bill leaves in place health reform's market reforms, including those that bar insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions or charging them higher premiums in the individual market. But without the individual mandate and the subsidies to make coverage more affordable, healthier people would likely drop or otherwise go without coverage. Losing most of the healthy people from the risk pool would substantially push up individual market premiums for everyone else, by making those still enrolled sicker and costlier to cover, on average. Higher premiums, in turn, would push even more healthy people out of the pool over time, driving up premiums still further."

Analyses of Certain Health Benefit Provisions of the Budget Reconciliation Package

"[S]everal House committees are marking up budget reconciliation legislation to repeal important components of health reform. Together, these measures threaten to undo historic gains in health coverage and undermine the foundations of health reform." [The web page includes links to CBPP's analyses of the health reform provisions of the reconciliation legislation.]

Proposals in Administration's Budget Could Weaken Employer-Based Health Insurance System

Excerpt: The two proposals that would pose risks to the employer-based insurance system are: A refundable tax credit for the purchase of private health insurance for individuals and families not covered by employer-based coverage ... and an expansion of Medical Savings Accounts ...

Eliminating Income Cap on Roth IRAs Is Bad Policy

Excerpt: Some House members are apparently considering a deal under which substantial new tax subsidies for saving would be provided to high-income households in exchange for a much less costly expansion of saving tax incentives for low- and moderate-income workers. In particular, the deal is said to involve eliminating the existing income limit on Roth IRAs in exchange for making the saver's credit refundable.

Trustees' Report Shows Need to Reduce Tax Cut, Reserve Some of General Fund Surpluses, Group Says

Excerpt: The Social Security and Medicare trustees' report issued today shows the danger of proceeding with a tax cut as large as the Administration has proposed and thereby failing to set aside a healthy portion of projected non-Social Security, non-Medicare surpluses for use in helping to restore long-term solvency to these programs. This is a conclusion of an analysis the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued today on the trustees' report.