Rep. Courtney: Excise Tax Should Be Tabled Until Congress Can Further Study The Impact On Working Families'

Statement

Congressman Joe Courtney issued the following statement today in response to the President's health insurance reform proposal, which was released prior to a February 25 meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders.

"I am certainly pleased that the President is hosting a bipartisan discussion in an attempt to bridge the partisan divide on one of the most critical issues of our time."

"The White House proposal makes significant progress on the Senate's excise tax on so-called high cost health plans by delaying it until 2018, closer towards the position that I staked out last September."

"While the proposal reflects significant progress, I continue to believe that the excise tax issue should be set aside and studied rather than imposing a tax eight years in the future. Delaying the tax by nearly a decade and hoping that it doesn't hurt working families is like throwing a dart in the dark."

"We will have a new Administration, four new Congresses, and potentially a far different economic and health insurance landscape, which makes estimating the tax almost impossible."

"I would respectfully argue that this entire issue be set aside and studied rather than imposing a tax eight years in the future."

Last year, Congressman Courtney spearheaded the House opposition to the Senate-passed excise tax. 193 Members of Congress joined Courtney's effort and signed his letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to push back against the excise tax.

Since that time, the White House and Senate have redrafted the tax proposal to have less of an impact on working families. Congressman Courtney believes more can be done to protect the middle-class.

Congressman Courtney's opposition to the excise tax has received support in recent studies completed by The National Academy of Actuaries and the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education. Click on links to download reports.

The UC Berkeley report states that approximately 80 percent of those impacted by the excise tax as passed by the Senate would impact non-union households.

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