Industry fears Obamacare taxes might stay

Insurers and medical device makers are nervous that Congress will hold onto their Obamacare taxes even as lawmakers cast away other parts of the healthcare law.

The taxes, key to funding the Affordable Care Act's insurance subsidies and Medicaid expansion, could prove too tempting for lawmakers to repeal, at least right away. President-elect Trump and Republicans might want to use them to pay for an Obamacare replacement or as a way to get moderate Democrats on board with tax reform later in the year.

To the industry, which has been lobbying for years to get the taxes permanently eliminated, it would be unfair to reverse the law's health coverage expansions, which guaranteed them millions of new customers, but keep the taxes.

"If they screw around and don't put it in reconciliation, we're going to get hammered as an industry," an insurance industry source told the Washington Examiner, referring to the budget reconciliation bill Republicans are using as a vehicle for repeal.

Marilyn Tavenner, president of the insurance association American's Health Insurance Plans, warned in a blog post this week that insurers would charge more for premiums if the law's health insurance tax, known as HIT, is allowed to go into effect next year.