U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today voted in favor of the Health-Care Reduction Cost Act of 2012, which would repeal portions of the president’s health-care law that would increase taxes on hard-working Missourians and hurt much-needed job creation efforts. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Health-Care Reduction Cost Act of 2012 would decrease the deficit by $6.7 billion over the 2013-2022 period.
 
“I am pleased that my House colleagues and I were able to successfully repeal more of the president’s  misguided health-care law,” Luetkemeyer said. “I have continously said, and will continue to show, that I am committed to repealing the health-care law, and successfully repealing this job-stifling legislation is another step in the right direction. The health-care law is ingrained with thousands of new rules and regulations that should not receive unlimited tax dollars.”

The Health-Care Reduction Act would repeal a $20 billion excise tax on medical devices under the president’s health-care law that would have devastating consequences for American medical device companies. Beginning in 2013, the president’s health care law institutes a 2.3-percent excise tax on the manufacture or import of certain “medical devices.”  By repealing the tax, industry officials have said that as many as 30,000 industry jobs would be saved. The medical device industry employs more than 400,000 workers nationwide and invests nearly $10 billion in research and development ("R&D") annually.  The tax is expected to stifle innovation, increase health care costs and cost thousands of high-paying jobs. A second critical portion of the Health-Care Reduction Act would restore the ability to use Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) for over-the-counter medicines without a prescription. As a result, if patients want to use their FSA or HSA, they would be forced to go to physicians’ offices in order to obtain a prescription for over-the-counter medicines.

Finally, the legislation also would allow for the payout of unused FSA balances, up to $500, at the end of a year, as ordinary wages. FSAs allow individuals to contribute pre-tax dollars from paychecks to pay for out-of-pocket health-care expenses that are not covered by their insurance. Currently, IRS rules require individuals to spend their entire FSA balances by the end of the year or lose an unused balance. This means that if an employee chooses to reduce his or her salary to fund an FSA but does not spend down his or her entire FSA balance by the end of the year, the remaining balance is forfeited to the employer.
 
Luetkemeyer said that he would continue to vote against harmful measures contained in the president’s health-care law while the U.S. Supreme Court continues to consider arguments in the case.