Healthcare Reform: The Affordable Care Act Tax Provisions

Course Description:

The landmark legislation known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed into law in 2010, is likely to affect virtually every person and institution in the United States in some way. It imposes healthcare-related requirements on health plans, health insurers, employers and individuals. In addition to imposing various tax increases to increase revenue, the PPACA uses a carrot and stick approach to ensure compliance with its provisions, offering tax credits for compliance and imposing tax penalties for non-compliance. This course will review the principal provisions of the law and will examine its tax impact on individuals and businesses.

In so doing, it will consider the:

• Coverage-related provisions of the PPACA addressing-

• Plan grandfathering pursuant to which health coverage in force at the time of the law's passage may be continued,

• The prohibition of pre-existing condition exclusions,

• The proscription of lifetime and annual benefit limits,

• The limitation of health coverage rescissions,

• The requirement for certain patient protections, and

• The requirement that plans covering children extend child coverage until age 26; 

• Tax credits available to small businesses to encourage them to sponsor employee health plans;
• Shared responsibility for certain large employers to provide employee health coverage and the tax penalties imposed for noncompliance;
• Various personal income tax changes affecting taxpayers; and
• Tax credits authorized to help individuals maintain minimum essential coverage.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• List the principal healthcare provisions of the PPACA;

• Identify the tax credits for which small businesses may be eligible when sponsoring employee health plans;

• Recognize the shared responsibility requirements for applicable large employers regarding employee health coverage;

• Compute the tax penalties imposed under the PPACA for a large employer’s failure to meet the applicable shared responsibility requirements; and

• Calculate the tax credits designed to help ensure that individuals are able to maintain minimum essential coverage.