Something I wish Bernie had said [View all]

[amborin]

(posted this in response to an OP)

If we had had universal health care, maybe GM would not have gone bankrupt in the 1st place

Every year the cost of retired workers' health care diverted billions of dollars from developing new models and added $1,400 to the cost of each car compared with those made in Asian and European transplants.

http://www.economist.com/node/13782942

there were a LOT of reasons for GM's bankruptcy, not least the foreign transplants in the non-union southern right to work states.

But having to pay employee and pensioner health care was certainly a huge reason

On another note, the Cadillac tax is looming on the horizon; it was delayed until well after the election.

Supporters of the tax claim it will hit only “extensive union plans” or “very rich plans,” says James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, a member of an anti-Cadillac-tax advocacy group. “But the reality of it is: It’s going to affect plans that are expensive, not necessarily the ones that are the most comprehensive.” Advocates like Klein contend that some plans are pricey through “no fault” of insurance-plan sponsors or the workers who have them; cohorts with more ill, disabled, or older workers often have more expensive plans, for example, as do people living in regions with high health-care costs, like Alaska and California. Plans that cover families who have experienced “unfortunate, catastrophic” health events can be pricey, too.

The 40 percent excise tax was designed to kill at least two birds with one stone, by reining in health-care spending and providing funding for other provisions of Obamacare, including insurance subsidies for low-income Americans. Starting in 2020—a new deadline passed by Congress last month—the tax will be levied on plan providers, like insurance companies and self-insured employers. But it would ultimately have effects on workers, too: An insurance company would pass at least some of the cost on to employers, who would in turn make coverage or cost-sharing adjustments to contend with the tax. The tax applies to health-insurance premiums that cost more than $10,200 for a single person or more than $27,500 for couples and families. Those thresholds, which include both the employee and employer contributions, are designed to rise with inflation. But “because health costs tend to grow faster than inflation,” the number of health-care plans that qualify for the tax will rise, too. Kosali Simon, a health economist at Indiana University, suggests that as premiums first rise above the threshold in small amounts, it might not be a “big deal” for individuals. But over time, “more and more” people will find “more and more” of their premiums subject to the tax.

Unions have been among the most vocal opponents of the Cadillac tax, as they have traditionally used substantial benefits packages to attract members. But Klein’s group, the Alliance to Fight the 40—which counts unions, insurance companies, an American Cancer Society affiliate, and county governments among its members—claims every American covered by employer-sponsored insurance, roughly 175 million people, are “at risk,” because of the inflation indexing.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/cadillac-tax-obamacare/431679/