And while the tax is aimed at insurers, which oppose the levy, some large insurers have already said they plan to pass the cost on to consumers.
Every insurer will pass this tax along to the consumers. What do they think will happen?
Posted on 09/19/2009 12:46:05 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Labor unions and some Democrats are pushing to scale back a proposal in the latest version of Senate health-overhaul legislation that would tax generous insurance plans.
A sweeping proposal to fix the health system, unveiled this week by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), would impose a 35% tax on high-dollar health plans offered by insurers. The tax on insurers is the biggest revenue generator for a plan that is expected to cost about $774 billion over 10 years.
The new tax is intended to target "Cadillac" plans offered to wealthy individuals. It would fall on plans valued at $8,000 or more for individuals, and at $21,000 or more for families. Unions say that would hit the plans of many of their members, who tend to have generous benefits. And while the tax is aimed at insurers, which oppose the levy, some large insurers have already said they plan to pass the cost on to consumers.
"We don't have Cadillac salaries," said Robert Corner, a 63-year-old who works for Nebraska's department of roads in Lincoln and earns just over $50,000 a year. His parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, estimates that its average family health plan in Nebraska will be worth $31,000 in 2013, the year the new tax thresholds would take effect. "It's really going to impact the middle class," Mr. Corner said.
...
A Senate Finance aide said the tax would only affect 8% of Americans to start. But more could get hit over time. That's because the threshold for the tax is tied to the Consumer Price Index, not the rate of health-care inflation. If health-care costs rise faster than overall inflation, as has happened in recent years, more plans would be subject to the tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It's just the AMT applied to health care.
Union thugs do not like to pay taxes. They want everyone else to pay them. That’s a fact, Jack.
Well heck, who can think of anyone more honest than a nameless gofer of an anonymous politician.
And while the tax is aimed at insurers, which oppose the levy, some large insurers have already said they plan to pass the cost on to consumers.
There will be more than a few members here that will be all for this plan, until they are informed they have a “Cadillac” plan.
This isn't a tax. it just plan robbery, stealing from a select group and forcing them to pay for those who refuse to work or pay for their own health insurance.
This isn't fixing "health care", it's selective taxation, which doesn't benefit those that are being taxed at all.
Those that want "government care", should pay for it themselves.
So who could be surprised by this?
Or this.
estimates that its average family health plan in Nebraska will be worth $31,000 in 2013, the year the new tax thresholds would take effect. "It's really going to impact the middle class," Mr. Corner said.
Tax increases that can generate the kind of dollars they are looking for necessarily must fall on the middle class. It is the only place to find that kind of money.
And $774 billion over ten years is a JOKE!!! It would cost over a trillion a year.
you don’t get to deduct medical expenses unless they are what 20% of income and now if you have a good plan, they are going to tax it.
I’d like to point out that many decent family plans in high-expense states, specifically Massachusetts, come close to that level. Worse, its very hard to get a simple high-deductible plan without a lot of frills coupled with an HSA. So, the proposed government care will suck, but if you contract to do better you have to pay a huge penalty. How screwed up is that?
What nonsense. That would be true only if our dollar devalued by 66%. But them wages would be 66% more as well. Heck, everthing would cost 66% more as this government rushes towards making our currency trade at par with Zimbabwe bucks.
Hardcore socialists - currently in control of both houses of congress and the White House - never, ever saw a tax they didn’t like. We may yet see meters on toilets to tax taking a leak, coupled with meters, for all Americans, to be worn on trousers and skirts to tax methane emissions.
This is all egregiously stupid; isn’t it past time to admit that all assets are the property of The State, and that we proles may keep only that which is permitted by the Supreme Soviet - a.k.a. congress/the president?
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” has become the new motto of the United States, superceding the entire Bill of Rights, which, quite obviously, has become an obsolete historical curiosity.
>> That would be true only if our dollar devalued by 66%. But them wages would be 66% more as well.
Living on a fixed income will suck big time, tho. Being unemployed or old or poor in the middle of roaring inflation will be no picnic either.
The rate of Health care cost growth has exceeded the rate of inflation every year for the last couple of decades.
With the way Obama is pumping dollars in to the economy don’t be surprised if we link our dollar to Zimbabwe’s as a way to slow inflation.
We lost property ownership long ago, when they began taxing it.
Now we just lease the land from the government. Try not paying your property taxes on your house and land and see how long you "own" it.
And if you take your after tax money and build something nice on your property, they tax you on that too. We really are little more than slaves to the tax and spend overlords.
Of course. They are always the ones who get the short end of the stick. Yet they are the ones who always think they are going to get more free stuff, and support these Marxist con artists.
Real (royal) Estate means “The Crown’s (King’s) property. It doesn’t mean “real” like tangible or “it exists” it means belongs to the state.
How do they justify the difference in a Cadillac plan and one in which a small business (meaning 2-50 employees) has very high premiums which go up in age banding?? My husband, 62, just got hit with $1000 per month premium from Blue Cross/PPO. He would be considered Cadillac even though it is all he can get through his small business. Just letting small businesses band together would be a step in the right direction, but I am sure Blue Cross has lobbied to keep his premiums high so we can pay for their stock to go higher.
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