President Signals Flexibility on Health Plan Tax

[Pirate Smile]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama told union leaders at a private White House meeting on Monday that he remained committed to taxing high-cost insurance policies as a way to drive down health costs. But he also signaled that he was willing to amend the proposal to “make this work for working families,” a senior administration official said.

The excise tax is a major point of contention as White House and Congressional negotiators seek agreement on a final version of a sweeping bill that would extend health coverage to more than 30 million Americans. The Senate version of the bill includes such a tax on employer-sponsored health benefits; the House version does not. Union leaders deeply oppose the tax.

Mr. Obama’s remarks, at an hourlong session with a dozen labor leaders in the White House Roosevelt Room, came just hours after the new president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Richard L. Trumka, delivered a speech at the National Press Club in which he criticized the tax as a “policy that benefits elites” and warned that Democrats would pay a price at the polls if it was enacted.

Privately, Mr. Obama and the union officials used Monday’s session to search for a sort of compromise, said a union leader who was briefed on the discussion. This official, who said the tone of the meeting was friendly, said it was clear that there would be some sort of excise tax in the final bill, but that the president “threw out some new concepts” in how it might be designed.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/health/policy/12health.html?hpw

[Newsjock]

1. So he's admitting

... that the current proposal does not "work for working families"?

[No Elephants]

8. ...

Maybe he's had some heart to heart. "come to Jesus" talks with union leaders? I believe most of them oppose the tax.

[BP2]

2. Well, you have to ask: What is the objective of HCR? The other question would be:

Does the version of HCR we're getting going to do that?

I see Trumka trying to get us there for the most part. I'm not too sure about our Democrats in the Senate.

[backscatter712]

3. I can see this tax working, with some modifications.

Maybe turn up the threshold by a few thousand dollars, to make it tax Cadillac plans instead of Chevy plans, and to not hit as many union workers.

Make sure the threshold is higher for older people, or people who work high-risk jobs.

[David Zephyr]

5. He didn't say that he'd do that.

.

[David Zephyr]

4. What a fucking joke.

We are going from the frying pan right into the fire. This is the single worst thing to happen to the American people, especially working class Americans, since FDR.

[ArcticFox]

6. Give up

This thing is going to be worse than doing nothing. It will take forty years to undo the harm that will be done by HCR.

KILL THE BILL.

[dreamnightwind]

7. Fix Medicare Part D instead

He was going to fix Medicare Part D for much of his funding, I think he was going to allow them to negotiate down drug prices at a huge savings, until the pharma companies vetoed that, at least I heard Obama mention fixing Part D as a funding source awhile ago. Now he's behind the Senate's proposal to tax so-called Cadillac plans? This is an outrage, yet another corporate capitulation. We should all have Cadillac plans.

[No Elephants]

11. I think they did fix the "doughnut hole" in Part D somewhat.

I think it will be half as costly as it is now. I cannot swear that provision survived until the Christmas Eve vote, but it was in there.

Politicians love seniors. They vote. (Young 'uns, take note.)

[dreamnightwind]

15. Yeah I'm a little fuzzy on this

I should look it up before speculating, it's something that's been bothering me, so I ought to verify it one way or another.

[No Elephants]

9. I think this could be very positive news.

If this tax ends up tied to an annual income level or to a combination of income level and cost of plan, I don't see any problem with it.

Just taxing high salaries would make filling out income tax returns easier, but apparently some kind of tas akin to a sales tax is psychologically more acceptable to the conservative Senators with the (D)s after their names.

[goclark]

10. K

[ChicagoSuz219]

12. Exactly! n/t

[ima_sinnic]

13. just expand Medicare and tax the effing parasitic wealthy. problem solved!

why the hell must we get all complicated and stupid by taxing health insurance plans? This makes no sense at all to me.
until the wealthy bloodsucking parasitic greedhead scum pay their fair share in the "land of opporutnity," nothing is going to go very well.

[midnight]

14. I'm glad the unions are speaking out on this.... I wish that they would say

that unless this tax and or the mandate to buy insurance is removed that the bill should be stopped.....

The AFL-CIO's Trumka made his remarks before delivering a speech in which he bashed the tax proposal in the Senate's health overhaul bill, contending that it "drives a wedge between the middle class and the poor."

"The bill rightly seeks to ensure that most Americans have health insurance. But instead of taxing the rich, the Senate bill taxes the middle class by taxing workers' health plans – not just union members' health care; most of the 31 million insured employees who would be hit by the excise tax are not union members," Trumka said hours before going to the White House. "This is a policy designed to benefit the elites."

Despite the criticism, Trumka stopped short of saying labor would actively oppose the bill if it included the tax. Trumka said bringing Americans health care reform "is too important for us to get this close and then say we quit."

[Javaman]

16. okay, so some one please explain to me how someone with a pre-existing condition

and has to pay twice the yearly average in health care here in texas (yes, that's how it works here), will benefit from having their high priced health care taxed when they are already paying out the ass?

[twiceshy]

17. Of course he's flexible......

he's a fucking Gumby doll. He doesn't have a clue on what he really wants in a HCP he just kicked it over to the Congress tohave their way with it. Unfortunately we are the ones who got fucked. What a joke.