Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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HEALTH CARE EXCISE TAX

Mr. HELLER. Mr. President, I rise today to share my concerns with the devastating impact of the Cadillac tax, enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act. The Cadillac tax is a 40-percent excise tax set to take effect in 2018 on employer-sponsored health care plans around the country. This is precisely why I have authored the only bipartisan piece of legislation that would fully repeal this onerous tax. The reason I did so is that in Nevada, 1.3 million workers who have employer-sponsored health insurance plans will be hit by this Cadillac tax. These are public employees in Carson City. They are service industry workers on the Strip in Las Vegas, small business owners, and retirees all across the State. Hardly anyone in Nevada will be shielded from the devastating effects of this Cadillac tax.

What I am most proud of on this piece of legislation is the fact that we have 14 other cosponsors here in the Senate. It is also sponsored and supported by 75 other organizations across the country. Some of those organizations include unions, chambers of commerce, small business owners, State and local government employees, and retirees, and they are all saying the same thing: The Cadillac tax needs to be fully repealed or our employees will experience massive changes to their health care.

We are talking about reduced benefits. We are talking about increased premiums. We are talking about higher deductibles. Over 33 million Americans who use flexible spending accounts, FSAs, and 13.5 million Americans who use health savings accounts, HSAs, may see these accounts vanish in the coming years as companies scramble to avoid the law's 40-percent excise tax. HSAs and FSAs are used for things such as hospital and maternity services. They are used for dental care, physical therapy, and they are also used for mental health services--something we badly need today. Access to these lifesaving services could all be gone for tens of millions of Americans if the Cadillac tax is not fully repealed.

I have heard from employers--from big business, to unions, to small businesses from all over Nevada--who are saying that they will inevitably have to eliminate services their workers currently enjoy. They will have to cut certain health care providers out of their networks.

This goes to the heart of the broken promises of ObamaCare; that is, if you like your health care, you can keep it; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

Earlier this week, I held a telephone townhall meeting with thousands of Nevadans from all walks of life. During the meeting, I asked the participants on the call ``Should the Cadillac tax be repealed?'' One of the best parts about these tele-townhall meetings is that you can do these surveys. We do this weekly. The question this week was ``Should the Cadillac tax be repealed?'' Almost 70 percent of them said ``Yes, the Cadillac tax should be fully repealed.'' Let me repeat that. Almost 70 percent of Nevadans supported the repealing of the Cadillac tax. They see this as a burdensome and costly tax that will hurt hard-working Nevadans, hard-working Americans.

The onerous tax targets Americans who already have high-quality health care. No one claims that our health care system ever was or is perfect. The goal of health reform should be to help those who do not have health care coverage and lower costs for those who already have insurance. This tax does not achieve either one of these goals.

It is very rare these days to see this much agreement in Washington. Organized labor, the chamber of commerce, local and State governments, and small businesses have all come together with a bipartisan group of Senators putting forth a solution to fix a problem affecting so many hard-working Americans and their families.

Some Members on both sides of the aisle have tried to make this a partisan issue for different reasons, but this is not a partisan issue, which is evident by the fact that the companion legislation to my bill in the House enjoys more Democratic cosponsors than Republicans.

Fully repealing the Cadillac tax is an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to join forces and work together to repeal a bad tax for one purpose; that is, to help 151 million workers keep the health care insurance that they like.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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