Unions poised to win delay of ObamaCare tax in budget deal

The Hill ^ | 10/14/13 05:25 PM ET | Elise Viebeck -

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Labor unions are poised to score the delay of an ObamaCare tax in the bipartisan budget deal emerging in the Senate.

The bargain under negotiation would make small adjustments to the healthcare law, including delaying the law's reinsurance fee for one year. The three-year tax is meant to generate revenue that will stabilize premiums on the individual market as sick patients enter the risk pool.

The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions argue it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit. 

The reinsurance tax figured prominently in discussions at a recent AFL-CIO convention, where workers passed a resolution demanding changes to ObamaCare.

[Williams]

These articles miss the little point that the problem is in the House not Senate. But isn’t it nice they want to exempt democrats from Obamacare. Oy

[spokeshave]

This should be a deal breaker......crickets from GOP

[jwalsh07]

Republicans are a sorry arse lot of cowards, enablers and eunuchs. Eff’em.

[Southack]

There is no deal.

[jwalsh07]

It’s not a deal breaker at all. Done deal in the austere senate and if it comes to the floor of the house there are enough vichy republicans to pass it there as well.

[Huskrrrr]

None of my dough is going to the RNC ever again. Only conservative candidates will receive a contribution from me.

[cableguymn]

Everyone is equal.. Some more equal than others..

Equal protection anyone?

[cableguymn]

“The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions argue it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit. “

ya and? I don’t like it either but you (unions) supported the guy that pushed it and the party that rammed it down our throats.

Eat your shyt samwich and like it.

[SERKIT]

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need has been the mantra of the labor movement for a long time. Why the change?

[mrsmith]

Well they haven’t got it yet.

At tomorrow’s meeting Mitch may reach into Lindsey’s make-up bag and pull out his blue eye make-up and smear it over half his (Mitch’s) face and say to his caucus:
“Dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

[43north]

Aye! I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

Where is William Wallace when we really need him?

[NonValueAdded]

THEN IT’S NO FREAKING DEAL!!!

[Vigilanteman]

The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions argue it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit.

Show me any company in America who can't make the same argument, union or otherwise.

[FlingWingFlyer]

McCain and Graham. Instead of taking the ObamaCare monkey off the backs of the American people, they’re looking out for the commie union Neanderthals who pushed ObamaCare through. Wow! This one party Amerika is something else. The RNC has been calling me all day long. Caller I.D. is a wonderful thing. They can KMA.

[Lancey Howard]

It seems the Senate is going to try to “jam” the House on Thursday and then leave town, take-it-or-leave-it. My guess is, the House will say eff you to the senate if it contains anything like a special interest exemption for the Democrat unions. You could be right that a handful of squishy-Vichy Republicans would help the rats pass such a bill, but that could only happen if the Hastert rule is flushed down the toilet by House leadership. That’s not going to happen.

Can you imagine the outrage if the House passes ANYTHING without a majority of Republicans supporting it?

[Pollster1]

The three-year tax is meant to generate revenue that will stabilize premiums on the individual market as sick patients enter the risk pool. The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions argue it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit.

That is the point. Unions and others on group plans are supposed to pay and get no benefit - so that others can get a benefit without paying what that benefit actually costs. Socialism doesn't sound quite as nice when you see who pays and how little everyone gets once medical care becomes a commodity delivered with all the warmth of the IRS and the efficiency of the DMV.

[PowderMonkey]

House? We don' need no steekeen' House. One paragraph. Two long sentences. Signature and seal. History is made. Will history repeat?

To Major General, Henry W. Halleck, December 2, 1861
Commanding in the Department of Missouri.
General: As an insurrection exists in the United States and is in arms in the State of Missouri, you are hereby authorized and empowered to suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus within the limits of the military division under your command and to exercise martial law as you find it necessary in your discretion to secure the public safety and the authority of the United States. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed at Washington, this second day of December, A d 1861. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[Enterprise]

"It seems the Senate is going to try to “jam” the House on Thursday and then leave town, take-it-or-leave-it."

If only Boehner had the guts to say that the House will reconvene the day after the Senate is back in session.