The health law's impact on food stamp eligibility; will unions get the tax relief they are seeking?

Nov 7 2013

News outlets offer the latest news on a range of health law implementation issues.

Politico: Obamacare Could Increase Food Stamp Rolls
Republicans have another reason to hate Obamacare: It could grow the number of people on food stamps. The Obama administration has ordered a study to determine whether the Affordable Care Act, by increasing the number of people eligible for Medicaid, will also increase the number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program based on how states enroll people (Parti, 11/5).

Kaiser Health News: Labor Unions May Get Health Law Tax Relief
Weeks after denying labor's request to give union members access to health-law subsidies, the Obama administration is signaling it intends to exempt some union plans from one of the law's substantial taxes. Buried in rules issued last week is the disclosure that the administration will propose exempting 'certain self-insured, self-administered plans' from the law's temporary reinsurance fee in 2015 and 2016 (Hancock, 11/6).

Politico: Werfel: IRS On Track With ACA Tax Credits
The Internal Revenue Service is successfully verifying income eligibility for tax credits under Obamacare, acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said on Tuesday. The agency has received more than 1.3 million requests from the state and federal insurance marketplaces and has acted on more than 300,000 requests to determine eligibility for the premium tax credits included in the Affordable Care Act to subsidize insurance coverage. "Our ACA tools are working as planned," said Werfel, speaking at a tax meeting of the national CPA group, AICPA (French, 11/5).