Now that the ACA will remain law next year, insurers and medical device companies are battling the taxes meant to help pay for the law, The Hill reports.
Congress delayed the ACA's taxes on health insurance and medical devices in the past. However, the delay on a 2.3 percent medical device tax will end by 2018 after a two-year moratorium.
JC Scott, chief advocacy officer for device trade association AdvaMed, told The Hill, "We're fully activated now. We're engaging with members on both sides of the Capitol, both sides of the aisle regularly on [repealing the medical device tax]. We've shared our concerns with the administration."
As for the health insurance tax, opponents argue the fee will increase consumers' premiums. An Oliver Wyman analysis cited by The Hill estimates the tax will result in a 2.7 percent premium increase for 2018.
However, Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at left-leaning think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the taxes are needed. "We don't levy taxes for the sake of levying taxes, but to pay for something which we think is worth having the government do, and in this case it was part of the price to pay for expanding healthcare coverage to many millions more people," he told The Hill.
Senate Democrats introduced a bill to push back the health insurance tax for another two years last week, and a Republican bill is in the Senate proposing a one-year delay on the fee, according to the report. For the medical device tax, 179 members signed a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., requesting a full repeal of the fee.