With Puerto Rico still recovering from Hurricane Maria, two members of the Florida congressional delegation are calling for providing residents of that island a temporary exemption from the health insurance tax (HIT).
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, NPP-PR, unveiled a bill on Wednesday to amend former President Barack Obama’s federal health-care law to provide the temporary exemption. Under that law, health insurance providers were hit with annual fees, including ones in the territories where residents don’t have access to the marketplaces set up under that law.
The legislators weighed in on Wednesday why they had championed the bill.
“Most of the Affordable Care Act doesn’t impact Puerto Rico, but the Health Insurance Tax is one of a small number of provisions that does, and it’s hurting families in Puerto Rico who are trying to recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria,” Curbelo said. “American citizens in Puerto Rico are subject to the burdens of the Affordable Care Act, but they do not have access to the benefits. While I believe that the HIT functions as a tax that drives up the costs for all Americans, Puerto Ricans are especially burdened by the tax given the way the ACA uniquely treats the island.”
“American citizens in Puerto Rico are treated unfairly under the Affordable Care Act due to the island’s status as a U.S. territory,” Murphy said. “Patients on the island are paying for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance tax, but do not benefit from many of the ACA provisions that this tax was designed to pay for. I am proud to help lead this bipartisan effort to repeal this tax in order to help our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico, whose longstanding challenges have worsened as a result of Hurricane Maria.”
“This bill puts an end to the imposition of the HIT on insurers resulting from the Affordable Care Act, which at the end of the road, is borne by the insured through the increase in premiums,”González-Colón said. “In the case of Puerto Rico, the HIT has had the effect of increasing premiums by 2 percent and of further annual increases. The big problem is that this tax was meant to be used for the health insurance exchange, as well as to provide credits and subsidies for other programs for which the Island does not qualify or benefit from; nonetheless, we have to pay the tax. Therefore, the filing of this bill will result in the reduction of health insurance premiums paid in the Island, and reduction in costs of more than $ 200 million per year. I trust that Congress can promptly address this bill that would exempt health insurance in Puerto Rico from this tax which it does not provide the island with any benefit. The estimated HIT that would correspond to Puerto Rico in 2016 is $202 million and for 2017 is $249 million.”
The bill was sent to the U.S. House Ways and Means and the Energy and Commerce Committees this week. So far, there is no counterpart over in the U.S. Senate.
Earlier this year, Curbelo paired up with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-NY, to unveil a proposal giving Puerto Rico and other American territories relief from the HIT.
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