ATR President Grover Norquist sent the following letter today to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.)
On behalf of Americans for Tax Reform, I am pleased to support your initiative this week to mark up two legislative items to repeal Obamacare tax increases.
Medical device manufacturing tax. The Committee will consider H.R. 436, the “Protect Medical Innovation Act.” This bill repeals the 2.3 percent tax on medical device manufacturers found in the Obamacare law. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, this tax increase will sap $29 billion from job creators over the next decade. These higher costs will be passed along to veterans with prosthetics, seniors with pacemakers and replacement hips, and children with braces. Even Massachusetts Democrat Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has endorsed repeal of this jobs-killing tax.
Medicine cabinet tax. The Committee will consider H.R.5842, the “Restoring Access to Medications Act.” This repeals an Obamacare tax increase 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.
In addition, the committee is considering two bills which will improve the way in which HSAs and FSAs work. These should also be supported by all Members.
HSA Improvement Act. The Committee will consider H.R. 5858, the “Health Savings Accounts Improvement Act.” This legislation 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. The Committee will consider H.R. 1004, the “Health Flexible Spending Arrangements Improvement Act.” It 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.