For Immediate Release
Washington, DC – The following statement should be attributed to Annette Guarisco Fildes, President and CEO, The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC):
“Today marks a victory for ERIC members, their employees, retirees, and families. Nine years ago, ERIC began its fight against the 40 percent ‘Cadillac’ excise tax on employer-sponsored health insurance, and strongly supported the two-year delay contained in the Continuing Resolution.
ERIC first spoke out against the tax during the crafting of the Affordable Care Act in 2009, and since then ERIC staff have spent thousands of hours meeting one-on-one with lawmakers and their staff, publicly called on lawmakers to vote for legislation that would repeal the tax, and written letter, after letter, after letter to get to this moment. Now, the 178 million Americans who get their health insurance through a job can breathe a momentary sigh of relief.
But, while ERIC celebrates today’s win, our work is far from over. We will continue to fight for the full repeal of the Cadillac tax, because without it, employers will still be forced to ready themselves for its eventual implementation. To prepare, they will start scaling back benefits and increasingly shift rising health care costs to employees. This is a game where no one wins and it must be permanently stopped.
There is already support for fully repealing the tax in the U.S. House of Representatives. More than half of all House members are cosponsoring the “Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2017” (H.R.173), meaning if voted on, it is virtually guaranteed to pass. There is similar support in the U.S. Senate, where earlier in the 115th Congress, a majority of Senators voted to completely and permanently repeal the Cadillac tax.
Until that day comes, ERIC will continue work with lawmakers and fight for the 178 million Americans whose health care is at risk.”