Letter to the Editor that ran in Wisconsin’s The Journal Times on January 17, 2017.
Karweik: Speaker Ryan, Congress should repeal HIT immediately
Ottelien’s recent letter on Obamacare’s tax on health plans was spot on. But to expand on his point, this is exactly what then Speaker Pelosi meant when she said, “But we have to pass the bill (Obamacare) so that you can find out what’s in it.” Pelosi was completely right, we had no idea what was in Obamacare and the Health Insurance Tax is exactly the type of policy item that would have made passage even harder for the Democrats, who were then completely in control of the federal government.
The more I look into the Health Insurance Tax (known as simply HIT) the more ridiculous I find it. Why anyone in Washington ever thought imposing a tax on health insurance plans wouldn’t be passed onto us consumers of health care is beyond me. At an estimated pop of $5,000 per family over the next decade —as Ottelien noted — this is real money we are talking about.
Now that Republicans control Congress and the White House, the repeal and replacement of Obamacare is only a matter of time. But in the meantime Speaker Ryan and Congress need to immediately repeal this ridiculous HIT.