Free choice voucher program falls in budget deal

They’re dropping like flies. Last week the Senate approved a bill that would eliminate the controversial 1099 provision from the Affordable Care Act, and just three days later another important piece of the legislation went down with Friday night’s budget agreement. This time the “employee free choice” voucher program emerged in the cross-hairs.

This provision, set to go into effect in 2014, would have allowed lower-income workers to opt out of their company’s health plan and use the employer contribution to buy individual coverage in the private market. Specifically, employees who’d spend between 8 percent and 9.8 percent of their income on their employer-sponsored coverage could choose to shop for a lower-priced plan through the new state-based health insurance exchanges, also scheduled to begin in 2014.