"Labor scores victory on excise tax in Obama's health plan"

[Clio the Leo]

Labor scores victory on excise tax in Obama's health plan

Organized labor groups scored a victory Monday in President Barack Obama's healthcare bill.

Obama, in his health bill unveiled Monday, softened the impact of the tax on high-value insurance plans (the so-called "Cadillac tax") that was contained in the Senate's initial legislation.

The president's proposal calls for delaying implementation of the tax to 2018 from 2013, and raises the thresholds at which insurance plans can be taxed.

The excise tax won't kick in for families until plans hit $27,500 in value. That's a higher ceiling than the $23,000 threshold called for by the Senate.

The threshold is still much higher, too, than a change to the excise tax that had been negotiated by labor groups and House and Senate Democrats in January, before Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That deal called for the excise tax to not kick in until a health plan reaches $24,000 in value for families.

The Obama plan gives labor groups more leeway than what they had been able to negotiate in January, when they had been previously excoriating Senate Democratic leaders for including the tax, which unions said would disproportionately impact their members.

more....
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/82607-labor-scores-victory-on-excise-tax-in-obamas-health-plan

[Cha]

1. Kickster~

THanks, Clio~

[Bluenorthwest]

2. "Families" by which Obama means "some families"

or to be blunt, those families his 'religion' says are approved by Warren and McClurkin. Not the families of the minorities they claim God holds in contempt, whom they claim God needs them to also hold in contempt as second class citizens.

[ieoeja]

12. Actually, Obama wants to repeal DOMA so the Federal government would recognize same-sex marriages.

[janet118]

3. Maybe us self-employed people should form a union . . .

so someone will listen to us.

How about Self Employers International Union? :evilgrin:

[Clio the Leo]

4. That's what the teabaggers have done....

Actually, someone already has.... you aren't even required to pay membership dues.

http://www.barackobama.com/learn/about_ofa.php

[janet118]

8. Already a member . . .

and that particular "union" has leadership that refuses to listen to self-employed people who want a public option.

[Better Believe It]

6. Check out the facts. Labor won nothing. Their health benefits will be downsized and degraded.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Chamber of Commerce members pay dues. They just payer higher dues than labor unions.

[Better Believe It]

5. Unions now have seven years to water down, downgrade and weaken their health insurance benefits.

So that their insurance premiums will fall under the tax requirements.

They will have to re-negotiate and downgrade their health benefits in union contracts in order to escape the health insurance tax.

A really big win indeed.

Tens of millions of non-union workers will simply have their health benefits downgraded or terminated by employers unilaterally to avoid the excise tax.

Here's the position of the International Association of Machinists union on the health insurance policy excise tax.


Press Releases
Machinists Remain Opposed to Health Care Excise Tax
January 15, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C., January 14, 2010 – Despite the so-called agreement announced today by various labor organizations, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) reiterated its opposition to any health care reform legislation that is funded by taxing the value of workers’ existing health care benefits.

“The IAM opposes the excise tax, period. We believe it is unfair to our current members and particularly unfair to those members we hope to organize in the future,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “If a temporary exemption is the best this Congress can offer the American people after the promises of the last election, they will have earned the wrath of voters in the next election."

“By stringing this 'fix' out until 2018, our members will be pressured to agree to benefit cuts year after year in the vain hope they will be able avoid the excise tax. Companies will seek to shift costs while still cutting benefits to avoid eight years of health care premiums accelerating at fifteen to twenty percent per year.

“This is a huge ping pong ball that our elected leaders are trying to shove down the throats of hard-working Americans,” said Buffenbarger. “On the installment plan or all at once, a 40 percent excise tax on their health care benefits is hard to swallow. But the White House and the House and Senate Democratic leadership appear determined to play ping pong with this legislation until they get the votes they need.

“We will continue our opposition to this egregiously unfair tax.”

The IAM is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, representing nearly 700,000 active and retired members in dozens of industries.

http://www.goiam.org/index.php/news/press-releases/6708-machinists-remain-opposed-to-health-care-excise-tax

[ProSense]

7. No, unions have seven years to negotiate better plans that aren't giveaways to insurers. n/t

[Mithreal]

9. Right.

[Mithreal]

10. +1

[Mithreal]

11. Taxing health care benefits is no victory.

Joe Biden discusses the McCain/Palin/OBAMA Healthcare Tax

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px5YXs788uM