Dive Brief:

• Opponents of the Affordable Care Act’s Cadillac Tax released a letter supporting its repeal in a new bill, reports Employee Benefits News. The new bill is called the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2017.
• The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) penned the letter, which boasts of bipartisan support for repealing the tax in Congress. ERIC is an advocacy group for large employers focusing on health, compensation and retirement policies.
• The ACA taxes health plans worth more than $27,500 for covering families and $10,200 for covering individuals. The purpose of the tax is to cut back high-priced health benefit plans, says EBN. James Gelfand, senior vice president of health policy at ERIC, told EBN that the Cadillac Tax is burdensome on employer-sponsored health plans, administratively costly, time-consuming and would result in more employers not offering health benefits.

Dive Insight:

Lawmakers should focus on fixing ACA measures that are costly and that are administrative burdens for employers. Repeal of the Cadillac Tax is one of the few proposed reforms that seems to draw bipartisan support.

Keeping healthcare costs down and making compliance with healthcare rules as uncomplicated as possible should be the goal. Employers can't afford to rely on political battles when it comes to compliance, however. Before the holidays, HR Dive looked at what businesses need to do now to keep in compliance with the ACA (or its replacement), regardless of the outcome.