Tax on ‘Cadillac’ insurance plans could snare hotel maids

[dkf]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/11/tax-cadillac-plans-could-snare-hotel-maids/

WASHINGTON — Several years ago, when the powerful Culinary Union was negotiating new contracts on the Strip, its workers decided to forgo an initial pay increase to preserve their health care benefits.

The union offers its workers, who clean hotel rooms and work in casino restaurants, a great benefits package by many measures — workers pay no premium from their paychecks for a policy that covers themselves and their families.

Now, under the health care reform plan being debated in the Senate, those benefits could eventually be taxed to help raise money to cover the uninsured.
The proposed tax on insurers providing the so-called Cadillac health care plans would hit employer-provided policies that cost more than $8,000 a year for an individual or $21,000 for a family.

But as a New York Times headline read a few weeks ago, the proposal could also snare a few Chevys.
Higher-end policies are enjoyed not just by corporate executives, but also by middle-class union workers who have long negotiated for better benefits over pay. They’re also provided by many smaller companies, which tend to pay more for health coverage because they have fewer workers among whom to spread the risk.

The Culinary’s health benefits package costs the companies about $8,000 per full-time worker, right at the threshold for the tax and about double the average for an individual employer-offered health plan in Nevada.