Ashelen Vicuña

Thanks to the legislation, most key 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions that were set to expire at the end of the year are permanent, including the suite of individual tax payment changes (lower marginal tax rates, increased standard deductions, and the increased child tax credit). As with most every new law, OBBBA comes with upsides and downsides. What happens next might not be pretty.

The stay is in response to an ongoing litigation challenge filed by the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) alleging the rule exceeds statutory authority and imposes burdensome requirements. While the stakeholder agencies have indicated that they will take a more comprehensive review of mental health parity enforcement, including potentially rescinding the final rule, group health plans and carriers should remember that the underlying parity requirements remain firmly in place.

While overturning the Obama-era law was a central theme of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, once elected his administration pivoted to regulation over elimination. FAST FOCUS Despite repeat efforts by Republicans in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the law remains in force. President Donald Trump made overturning the ACA a key theme of his 2016 campaign, but in office focused on regulatory measures to weaken the law and reforms to the marketplace.