Posted on 09/11/2009 6:16:46 PM PDT by Kaslin
President Obama will likely enjoy a warm reception when he speaks at the AFL-CIO convention on Tuesday, but Big Labor isn't happy about his latest idea for how to pay for a health care overhaul.
His speech to Congress last week left out House Democrats' plan to slap a surcharge on high earners. Instead, he embraced taxing insurers on high-cost health plans, which is part of Senate efforts to craft a centrist bill.
Obama offered few specifics beyond a slimmer $900 billion price tag. But his financing idea is drawing fire from union allies, driving home how difficult it will be to pay for even a scaled-down health bill.
In his Sept. 9 speech, Obama made the idea sound like a no-brainer:
"This reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies, which will encourage them to provide greater value for the money — an idea which has the support of Democratic and Republican experts."
He added, "This modest change could help hold down the cost of health care for all of us in the long run."
The idea of taxing insurers on high-value plans emerged in July as an alternative to the more politically controversial idea of limiting the open-ended subsidy for employer-provided health benefits. The latter approach, which would tax some non-wage income, would directly affect take-home pay.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
They will exempt unions.
The numbers they use, in the article, are just pulled out of their ass. 21000 and 8000 hummmm. Most large Companies self insure so putting a number on these plans will be arbitrary at best and will drive most companies to shut down their programs.
That’s easy. Just make union members exempt.
Well in that case, he won’t tax them.
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