White House, Dem leaders give concessions to win labor’s support

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/76085-white-house-and-dem-leaders-give-concessions-to-win-labors-support

The White House and Democratic senators negotiating a final healthcare bill gave ground Thursday to labor leaders to secure support for a tax on high-cost health plans.

Labor representatives, including Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, Gerald McEntee, president of AFSCME, and Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, negotiated all day Wednesday to reach a “conceptual agreement” with White House and congressional negotiators.

The unions agreed to accept a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost plans with a few adjustments.
Labor leaders announced the deal on a conference Thursday afternoon.

"We approached this by looking at the bill and saying we wanted healthcare reform," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka about the agreement. "We don’t look at this as the end of the fight for reform but as another step along the way towards real reform."

[Mojambo]

1. Nice to see someone other than conservatives extracting concessions from this White House. n/t

[frazzled]

2. Um, I'm really feign to say this

Because I'd just as soon not tip everybody off to the fact that labor was really the one who conceded here ...

But the fact is, the WH and Democratic Leadership won on this one: the only four things that have changed are (1) the threshhold for the excise tax goes up to $24,000 instead of $23,000 (hardly a big deal); (2) the unions get a some extra time to negotiate new contracts; (3) vision and dental plans won't be counted into the total; and (4) some adjustments for age and gender of pools were made. Otherwise, the excise tax remains unchanged.

Let's just say labor won, but those who supported the excise tax actually got 97% of what was already in the bill. I'm happy if labor gets behind this. So, shhhhh. They won.

[midnight]

3. Darn.... I was hoping they could turn this tax away......