U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-MA) and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) are commending a recent Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) healthcare regulation they said reduces unaffordable employer-sponsored coverage costs.
Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the action addresses the “so-called ‘family glitch.'”
“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) ushered in a new era for our healthcare system, and the premium tax credits have made way for the lowest uninsured rate on record,” Neal and Wyden wrote. “As we highlighted in our May 2022 letter to Treasury and IRS, we have long believed that eliminating the ‘family glitch’ is the rightful interpretation of the text, structure, and goal of the ACA.”
An additional one million Americans will now be able to access insurance or have lower costs. An independent estimate suggests a family of four, making $53,000 per year, would save $4,150.
“Under the leadership of the Biden Administration, Congressional Democrats’ American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act made the largest investments in our health care system since the creation of the ACA,” Neal and Wyden concluded. “This final rule goes one step further in fulfilling the ACA’s mission of ensuring all Americans have access to affordable, comprehensive health coverage.”
President Joe Biden stated that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege.
“But for many Americans caught in the so-called “family glitch,” the peace of mind that health insurance brings has remained out of reach,” Biden added. “In April, I announced that we were proposing to fix this regulatory flaw. The Treasury Department is finalizing that fix so that the law works the way Congress intended and the cost of coverage comes down for families.”