A final tax bill has been negotiated by conference committee and initial details began emerging yesterday. Action is expected in the Senate as early as Monday. A conference committee may have been moot if not for a significant mistake; in the fervor of last minute promises and handwritten changes, Senate Republicans failed to check their work and mistakenly eliminated all corporate tax deductions. Health care advocates welcomed this development hoping for a fix to serious issues in the bill, including repeal of the individual mandate to buy health insurance (Senate) and elimination of the high-cost medical deduction (House).

Unfortunately, initial reports about the negotiated bill suggest it will resemble the Senate bill – repealing the individual mandate, but preserving the high-cost medical deduction. It seems likely that the large budget deficit that would be created by this bill would lead quickly to cuts to federal health programs including Medicaid and Medicare. The pressure is now on health care advocates to tell Congress to reject this negotiated tax bill!