[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Washington, DC (June 22, 2016) … The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) gave an overall “thumbs-up” to the House Republican Health Care Task Force’s health care policy white paper released today, in which House Republicans outlined their ideas for replacing Obama Care if they are in a position to do so in the next Congress. “‘Repeal and replace’ has been the common health care-related theme of Congressional Republicans ever since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted just over six years ago,” said Jim Anderson, NAW’s Vice President-Government Relations. “We now have a clearer picture of what that means and the vision House Republicans have for reforming health care, a policy area that has a major bottom line impact on NAW-affiliated employers across the country.”
“The context of what House Republicans have set forth is very important.” Anderson said, “They have unveiled a series of ideas the details of which will need to be fleshed-out over the coming weeks and months. House Republican leaders have spoken of this as the beginning of a conversation with stakeholders who will work with them in a good-faith, collaborative effort to find common ground on marketplace-driven, patient-centered ways to achieve the access, cost-containment, and quality goals we share. The Task Force’s white paper includes components with which NAW members strongly agree, many of which NAW has vigorously supported in the past, and House Republicans will find in NAW a willing, enthusiastic partner in this process.”
NAW applauded the Task Force white paper’s recognition of the importance of the employment-based system while identifying its proposal to cap the exclusion from income of employer-sponsored benefits (“the exclusion”) as “a concern.” A recent survey of companies affiliated with NAW showed that respondents support the current tax treatment of employer-sponsored health benefits.
“No one has a greater stake in the evolution of the coming health policy conversation than the nation’s employers and their workers: 175 million people receive their health coverage through an employment relationship. How this process unfolds from here and its result must not undermine the employment-based system that continues to deliver to millions of workers and their families health coverage they like and value and which meets the needs and objectives of the nation’s employers,” Anderson said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
