June 1, 2012

The House is expected to vote on H.R. 436, the "Protect Medical Innovation Act" next week.  The bill repeals the 2.3% tax on medical device manufacturers found in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (aka "Obamacare") law.  According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, this tax increase will sap $29 billion from job creators over the next decade and will add higher costs passed along to veterans with prosthetics, seniors with pacemakers and children with braces.  The bill is sponsored by 239 member of the house, including 10 democrats.  This vote will be the House's 30th to repeal all and/or parts of PPACA.  The Senate has not had any votes on PPACA repeal.
 
In addition to H.R. 436, The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday up other pieces of legislation which repeal PPACA, including: 

• Medical cabinet tax (H.R. 5842) which prevents owners of health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) from using these accounts to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines.  This is a $4 billion direct tax increase on families making less than $250,000 per year, something that President Obama said repeatedly he would not do.  
• HSA Improvement Act (H.R. 5858).  which would: expand the Savers’ Credit to HSA contributions; allow for HSA-qualified distributions to pay for medical expenses incurred after an HSA-qualified insurance plan was obtained but before the establishment of an HSA; allow both spouses over age 55 to make “catch-up” contributions to an HSA; allow those who receive Veterans’ Administration benefits for a service-related industry to retain their HSA contribution eligibility, and permit qualified HSA distributions for post-55 early retirees to pay for health insurance premiums for their former employer’s health plan.
• FSA rollover (H.R. 1004)which would permit health FSA plans to distribute unused FSA dollars as wages to employees in the subsequent year.  Under current law, any unused balance reverts back to the employer and is lost to the employee.

DPMA supports all of the above pieces of legislation, as vehicles which enable patient empowerment and control over the health care spending for themselves and their families.