After years of lobbying by countless interest groups, Congress has finally killed the dreaded Cadillac tax.

This is a weird time in the United States. Republicans and Democrats are at an impasse on healthcare; they can’t seem to agree on anything. But it’s worse than that. Each side seems to hate anything the other side proposes, and with a divided Congress, it’s pretty clear that we aren’t going to see any major bills to fix the current system anytime soon. None that have a chance at passing, anyway.

You may have seen the news that the Department of Justice is no longer defending the Affordable Care Act against a challenge that, now that the penalty is being eliminated, the individual mandate is unconstitutional including certain protections for people with pre-existing conditions. We wanted to provide a quick explanation of what’s going on to help you better explain the developments to your clients.

For the past several years, the insurance industry has been urging Congress to eliminate three unpopular taxes that were designed to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. They finally listened… sort of. While the taxes have not been eliminated, the House and Senate did vote to postpone the Health Insurance Tax (HIT), the tax on High Cost Health Plans, better known as the Cadillac Tax, and the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Tax. This was part of the January 22 deal to keep the government open for three weeks. The same bill also reauthorized the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) for six years.

One year into Donald Trump’s presidency, most would agree that his biggest legislative victory is the recently-passed tax reform legislation. Tax reform was a top priority for the new president, and the bill’s passage helps President Trump fulfill an important campaign promise. Two promises actually:

By now, everyone’s heard the news: the Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have failed in the Senate. After three unsuccessful votes—first on the Better Care Reconciliation Act, then on a repeal and delay bill, then on a skinny repeal—majority leader Mitch McConnell declared on July 27 that “it’s time to move on.” For now, repeal & replace is dead, though the efforts could certainly be revived sometime in the future.