Dive Brief:
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has raised controversy with a 2015-16 executive budget that proposes a new tax on health insurance premiums to help the state cover the cost of running its health insurance exchange.
- The tax, which would average under $25, would reportedly be assessed on premiums sold both on the exchange and off of it, but not on self-insured policies or those covered by Medicare, Medicaid or Child Health Plus.
- Insurers are fighting the proposal, suggesting that it aims to collect more than $69 million per year and that it threatens to increase costs for both businesses and individuals. In 2014 the state spent an estimated $150 million running the exchange.
Dive Insight:
The proposal to tax the health insurance premiums of New Yorkers appears to be at odds with the intent of ACA: making health care affordable.
The New York Health Plan Association is speaking against the proposed new tax.
"If affordable health coverage is the goal here in New York, the new 'exchange tax' should be dropped and the existing state taxes on health insurance, which today total more than five billion dollars and amount to five percent of premium, be reduced," Paul Macielak, the association's president and CEO, told the media.