Today, Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting it examine how taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize Obamacare and how those costs compare to the costs of employer-sponsored plans.
In the letter, Rep. Foxx writes:“Ensuring that workers and their families have access to affordable, high quality health care is a key priority for me and for members of the Committee on Education and Labor. While I am mindful of increased health care costs, the large increase in costs across all manner of goods and services in our economy have made us even more concerned about the cost of health care.”
The letter continues: “The number of Americans using the ACA marketplace for health care coverage is dwarfed by the number of Americans receiving coverage through employer-sponsored benefits, which covers more than 10 times the individuals using the ACA marketplace. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that approximately 156 million individuals receive health coverage through employer-sponsored benefits. While the federal government pays 71 percent of all premiums paid in the marketplace, federal law also provides tax exclusions to employers to assist them in offering health benefits to their employees.”
The letter concludes: “With the significant amount of federal spending on ACA marketplace plans and tax incentives available to employer-sponsored plans, and with these plans’ impacts on the lives of millions of Americans, I think it is important to have updated information.”
