Weekend update

Congress remains in session on Capitol Hill this coming week. CNBC is reporting that the Treasury Department is urging Congress to raise the national debt limit before Congress leaves town for its August recess.

One of the craziest provisions of the Affordable Care Act is its excise tax on high cost health plans a/k/a the Cadillac tax or HCPT. The Kaiser Family Foundation last week issued a report on that tax which originally was to take effect for 2018 and due to statutory delays is not set take effect for 2022. The report states

When the HCPT takes effect in 2022, an estimated 21% of employers offering health benefits will have at least one plan whose premium and account contributions would exceed the HCPT threshold (Figure 1). When potential FSA contributions are included, the percentage climbs to 31%.

The FEHBlog also took note of the following

The HCPT is a tax on employers based on the value of plans they provide in excess of designated thresholds, originally set at $10,200 for single coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. These caps grow annually with inflation. The CBO estimates that the thresholds will be $11,200 for individual coverage and $30,100 for family coverage when the law takes effect in 2022. Some employers with workers in high-risk industries or older workers face higher caps.  

The HCPT may lead employers to take advantage of the Trump Administration's offer to send their employees into the ACA marketplace.

An Oregon newspaper, the News Guard, reports that Oregon and 29 other states reached a $10 million settlement with Premera Blue Cross over a data breach ==

From May 5, 2014-March 6, 2015, a hacker used a “spear phishing” email to gain access to the Premera network containing personal information of over 10 million consumers nationwide.