On Friday, December 18, President Obama signed the omnibus spending bill, granting clubs several key victories on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the H-2B Visa Program. These changes include:
- Two-year suspension of the “Cadillac tax.” The omnibus bill pushes the tax’s implementation date from 2018 to 2020. The “Cadillac tax” is a 40 percent excise tax on high cost policies. For self-only plans, a 40 percent tax will be levied on each dollar spent over a threshold of $10,200. For family plans, this threshold is raised to $27,500.
- Two-year suspension of the medical device tax. The omnibus bill suspends this tax until 2018. The medical device tax is a 2.3 percent tax levied on medical device manufacturers. For many clubs (and their employees), this tax has caused their insurance premiums to increase.
- One-year suspension of the HIT tax. The omnibus bill provides for a one-year suspension of the annual excise tax imposed on health insurance providers. The tax would not apply for calendar year 2017. The health insurance tax (HIT) is passed down to clubs in the form of a two to four percent premium hike on each health care plan.
- Key changes to the H-2B Visa Program. These provisions will:
- Exempt H-2B workers who were issued H-2B visas in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from counting toward the annual cap of 66,000
- Increase H-2B employment periods from nine months to 10 months
- Prevent the implementation of the “three-fourths guarantee,” which requires clubs to pay H-2B wages to workers for at least three-fourths of the full-time work hours in a workweek
- Prevent the implementation of the requirement for clubs to pay “corresponding” workers the prevailing wage for their position
- Prevent the implementation of the requirement for clubs to pay for “corresponding” H-2B workers’ inbound and outbound transportation costs and subsistence
- Permit the use of private wage surveys
Note: “corresponding” workers are non-H-2B workers who perform substantially the same work as H-2B workers.
NCA and our allies have been working hard to ensure that these changes have been made. Together, the provisions provide much-needed relief from many administrative and financial burdens that the ACA and H-2B Visa program have placed on clubs.
Also, despite the president’s ardent support of the “Cadillac tax,” Obama signed the provision to suspend the tax, recognizing that there is bipartisan support to amend the ACA and that changes to the health care law can still be made going forward.
As we head into 2016, NCA will continue to protect and advance the private club industry through our advocacy efforts.
Should you have any questions about this topic or how it will affect your club, please contact NCA’s Vice President of Government Relations and General Counsel, Brad D. Steele, at [email protected].
Thank you for being a part of NCA.