Cantor: Repeal 'ObamaCare' taxes

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) emphasized repealing the taxes in President Obama's healthcare law during a speech outlining the House GOP's priorities.

Although Cantor criticized the entire law, he focused his specific calls for repeal on the law's new taxes — specifically a 2 percent excise tax on medical device manufacturers.

"President Obama’s health care law resulted in higher premiums and costs for families, and has made access to quality health care and innovation tougher," Cantor said. "If we want to reverse this trend, we should start by choosing to repeal the new taxes that are increasing the costs of health care and health insurance, like the medical device tax."

There is bipartisan support for repealing the device tax, and conservatives have been looking for new, more specific targets since Obama's reelection took full repeal off the table.

Cantor, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, also called for reforming Medicare and Medicaid, although he did not directly bring up House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) plan to partially privatize the Medicare program.

Instead, Cantor proposed more narrow reforms — streamlining the parts of Medicare that pay for doctors and hospitals, and allowing patients to take home a share of programs that share savings between Medicare and physicians.

"We can modernize Medicare so it isn’t so complicated for seniors or healthcare providers and make it easier for them to get the care they need in a cost-effective manner," Cantor said.

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