Budget deal includes scrapping another reform law provision

Congress may soon repeal a second provision of the 2010 federal healthcare law. The budget deal the Obama administration worked out with congressional Republicans on Friday to fund the federal government through the end of the current fiscal year also would scrap a provision of the health insurance law that will allow workers to buy coverage in future insurance marketplaces, Senate staff confirmed Monday.

The provision allows workers whose share of their employer-provided insurance coverage is 8% to 9.9% of their gross income to instead opt for coverage through insurance exchanges—expected to launch in 2014—and requires the employer to turn over the amount spent on that worker's insurance coverage. If a worker could find lower-cost coverage on the exchange than their employer provided, the employee could keep the difference.

The measure is a relatively low-cost component of the law for the federal government that would add $4 billion to the deficit over the first 10 years, because of reduced taxable wages of qualifying workers.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who authored the provision, wrote on Saturday in the Huffington Post that he did not know why elimination of the provision was included in the budget agreement. But supporters of the program said Monday that they suspected it was targeted by business and union leaders who worried it would undermine the current insurance system.

Wyden described the measure as “a safety net and a bridge to another system” because the employer sponsored health insurance system is “currently unsustainable.”

“Premiums are going to keep going higher and higher burdening both employers and employees,” Wyden wrote.

If Congress approves the budget compromise that includes elimination of the employee voucher program—as expected—then it would be the second repeal of a provision of the 2010 health law. Congress eliminated a tax reporting requirement of the law earlier this month.