Weekly Newsletter: June 9, 2008
Committees Continue to Spar over Tobacco Tax Legislation
Congress’ return last week brought no end to a simmering jurisdictional dispute that has delayed consideration of legislation (H.R. 1108) designed to regulate tobacco products under the auspices of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In April, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangel wrote to Speaker Pelosi requesting a sequential referral of the bill, on the grounds that the “user fee” assessed on tobacco companies in the legislation exceeds the funds directed from that fee to tobacco enforcement activities at FDA, making the legislation a general revenue raising (i.e. tax) bill under Ways and Means’ jurisdiction.
Many conservatives will view Chairman Rangel’s letter as confirmation that, notwithstanding the statements of Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats and a finding within the bill text of H.R. 1108, the proposed “user fee” is in fact an excise tax on tobacco companies to offset the expected loss of revenue resulting from FDA regulation. Some conservatives may view this tax increase as one of several concerns associated with H.R. 1108, which would impose onerous regulatory restrictions—including those on tobacco companies’ free speech rights to market and advertise their products—in the interest of protecting the public health. Some conservatives may question the wisdom of legislation requiring the FDA to regulate tobacco, particularly given the concerns raised by Congressional Democrats themselves about the FDA’s inability properly to regulate products currently within the agency’s remit.
The RSC will weigh in with conservative concerns on the tax and other issues as the legislation moves forward.
Revised Wyden Bill a Perpetual Tax-Raising Machine
Last month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a letter that could have a significant impact on any potential discussion of health care reform in the 111th Congress. In it, CBO gave a preliminary opinion that comprehensive health legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Healthy Americans Act (S. 334), could be scored as budget-neutral, subject to certain conditions. In general, the bill would replace the current system of employer-provided health insurance with a “managed competition” model, whereby insurance coverage meeting a series of regulatory standards is provided through state-based pools, with a mandate on all individuals to purchase coverage and subsidies for low-income individuals and families.
Many of the bill’s potential funding sources—including a tax on all employers to pay for their employees’ insurance costs—have been well-publicized. Less advertised however were the revised bill specifications which CBO took into account when scoring the Wyden proposals. Specifically, the bill proposed to mandate coverage at least as good as that currently provided in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Standard option in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP)—a generous benefit package 15% higher than the average cost of all employer-sponsored plans—with the amount of the mandate rising in future years to reflect economic growth in the gross domestic product (GDP). However, the revised specifications also note that the tax subsidy for purchasing health insurance will be indexed in future years to growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Thus, under the Wyden plan, if future economic growth exceeds inflation—as it has in every year since 1992—Americans would be forced to buy more insurance but would not receive an equivalent tax subsidy to purchase that richer benefit package, leading to tax increases that would spiral over time.
On top of the many existing problems with the Wyden bill—a mandatory tax on employers, an individual mandate to purchase coverage that could prove problematic to enforce, increased regulation on insurers, and the requirement that all carriers provide coverage for abortion procedures—some conservatives may find this new perpetual tax increase most objectionable of all. While many conservatives support measures designed to control the currently uncapped tax expenditure for employer-sponsored health care as a way to slow the growth of health care costs, many of these same conservatives may have concerns about the implications of an individual mandate to purchase insurance—particularly one that could lead to automatic tax increases in future years for millions of Americans.
An RSC Policy Brief on the implications of an individual mandate can be found here.
Articles of Note: Health Insurance in Massachusetts a Fine Thing
A study on the influential Massachusetts health plan released last week indicated that beneath the political harmony that yielded a statewide “universal coverage” law two years ago, fissures loom. While health insurance coverage has increased significantly, the biggest growth in new coverage has come from low-income individuals accepting free or heavily subsidized plans provided by the Commonwealth. On the other hand, nearly 100,000 individuals paid a fine on their 2007 taxes for lacking health insurance in spite of the new mandate to purchase coverage.
Many conservatives may not be surprised by the study’s findings, particularly given the unnecessarily high cost of health insurance premiums in Massachusetts due to over-regulation. Faced with a penalty for non-compliance of $219 in 2007 and an average monthly premiums in excess of that amount, some individuals may make a rational choice to pay a fine of several hundred dollars per year rather than purchase coverage costing several thousand dollars—particularly because Massachusetts state regulations allow individuals applying for insurance after contracting an illness to receive the same premiums as those who applied when healthy. Conservatives would view the Massachusetts data as symptomatic of the problems associated with both enforcing an individual mandate and the high cost of health insurance derived from over-regulating insurance markets.
In addition, some conservatives may be concerned by a quote in The Washington Post from the head of a group that advocated for passage of the Massachusetts law: “Nobody knew what this was going to cost in the beginning.” At a time when the federal government faces unfunded obligations of nearly $86 trillion associated with the Medicare program alone, many conservatives may consider it unwise for the federal government to follow Massachusetts’ lead in enacting another expansive government entitlement without solving the underlying problems associated with the growth of health care spending.