​American Health Care Act Amendments

House Committee on Energy & Commerce and Committee on Ways & Means issued a “Managers Amendment” making changes to the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The Managers Amendment consists of both policy and technical changes to the AHCA. If passed by the House, the AHCA will move to the United States Senate for consideration. See our article on important aspects of the AHCA here. 

The amendments to the AHCA focus primarily on changes to Medicaid, state funding and tax credits. Items of interest to employers include 

• The acceleration of relief from the repeal of increase of tax on health savings account to 2017;
• The acceleration of relief from the repeal of limitations on contributions to flexible spending accounts to 2017;
• The acceleration of relief from the repeal of the Medicare Tax increase to 2017 and a transitional rule for employer withholding;
• The acceleration of relief from the repeal of tax on over the counter and prescription medication to 2017 (paving the way for over-the-counter medications to be reimbursable from a health FSA in 2017 without a prescription);
• The acceleration of relief from the repeal of health insurance tax to 2017 (thereby eliminating the individual mandate in 2017);
• Pushing the effective date of the Cadillac tax an extra year to 2026.

Employers must continue to pay attention to the AHCA as it moves through the legislative process. If it moves along as drafted, employers’ health care responsibilities to employees and reporting requirements will certainly differ from the responsibilities over the past few years.