N. Gregory Mankiw and Lawrence H. Summers pen op-ed in support of the ACA's Cadillac tax...

[PoliticAverse]

One of us, a former member of the Obama administration, remains a fan of the president. The other, not so much. But we agree on one thing: The excise tax on high-cost health care plans, the so-called Cadillac tax, is good policy. Congress should side with President Obama and resist calls to scrap it.

Let’s start with the basics. Health insurance should be an ingredient of every family’s financial plan. Medical expenses are necessary and unpredictable, and they can be large. When a family receives an adverse health surprise, the emotional toll is unavoidable, but the risks of financial insecurity, personal bankruptcy and forgone essential care are not. Health insurance solves these problems by protecting people from the cost of expensive treatments.

But as with a glass of red wine with dinner, too much of a good thing creates new problems. If people have insurance that pays for too much, they don’t have enough skin in the game. They may be too quick to seek professional medical care. They may too easily accede when physicians recommend superfluous tests and treatments. They may not try hard enough to buy services from the lowest-cost provider. Such behavior can drive national health spending beyond what is necessary and desirable.

Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/upshot/uniting-behind-the-divisive-cadillac-tax-on-health-plans.html?_r=0

[MannyGoldstein]

1. @#$% you, you @#$%ing @$$holes.

Just go away, and stop sucking the blood from working people. Fix the @#$%ing health care system instead of assaulting union member health care plans.

I am so @#$%ing sick of this @#$%.

[zipplewrath]

2. This is why the whole thing is a crock.

Might companies use the Cadillac tax as an excuse to reduce health coverage and, instead of increasing wages, simply pocket the savings? Some may try, but the success of this strategy would be fleeting. In the long run, the compensation of labor, like most prices in the economy, is governed by supply and demand. Any employer that tries to pay less than the market requires will struggle to recruit and retain workers.

Real wages have been stagnant for a few decades for all but the most highly compensated employees. The primary beneficiaries of these "Cadillac" plans are middle to upper middle class employees. Those companies WILL cut benefits and NOT compensate their employees better, and they'll get away with it. The "market" will not correct for this. The most likely outcome will be an even greater push for HB-1 visas.

[Doctor_J]

3. anything to keep the insurance death merchants in the system

Obama fan club and other conservatives insist on for profit health insurance. Will resist sp until the bitter end.