Bob Herbert, the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000

[keep_it_real]

There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care.

The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, it’s a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care.

Which is exactly what the tax is designed to do.

. . . the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?_r=3&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[katandmoon]

1. Of course it would.

[FreakinDJ]

2. "Death Nail Tax"

[HughMoran]

3. This was posted, discussed, and opposing posts were discussed several days ago

One argument was that the tax was not on the policyholder. Of course if this is a real 'problem' in this bill, the Dems ought to fix it in conference. It's a good distraction either way so it's not a bad thing IMO.

[vadawg]

5. you know the tax will be passed on in one way or another...

[HughMoran]

8. That's what the Republicans will argue

So are you suggesting that the tax is indeed on the insurance companies or businesses buying the policy?

[vadawg]

10. dosent matter, do you really think that companies are not going to pass on the costs

if they dont it will be a first in the history of business..

[vadawg]

4. i thought if you earned less than 250k or was it 200k you would pay no more in taxes

i guess come the fall a lot of people are going to be comparing their paychecks to last years and seeing if campaign promises are just made to be broken..

[Better Today]

15. That's the House version, this is one thing I desperately hope the House

is able to hang on to in the reconciling of bills.

[FLDCVADem]

16. Yep n/t

[flvegan]

6. Remember that feeling we had when we won, and thought things might be different?

With Dems in control of the House, Senate and White House surely things would REALLY change. Change. Heh. Sweet memories.

[vadawg]

9. dude i think the word is not memories, i think it is delusions

we deluded ourselves into thinking it was something different, something new. its the old meet the new boss same as the old boss...

[flvegan]

12. I think you may be on to something.

[Hannah Bell]

7. kill the tax, write your congresspeople.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7371033

[maryf]

19. I rec this post

Hope others do too...(K&R)

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The purpose of the tax seems to be to encourage those who pay for policies

to choose policies that don't have ballooning costs.

"The tax would kick in on plans exceeding $23,000 annually for family coverage and $8,500 for individuals". For people earning between $50,000 and $75,000, that's between 11.3% and 17% of their pay just for one individual. That is a large amount for insurance; and the 40% tax is on the excess over $8,500. The limit also goes up by cost of living plus 1%, each year.

I'd rather see a public option to give the extra incentive for healthcare costs to be limited; but with that kicked out, something like this is needed, IMO.

[Statistical]

14. What you forget is many people negoatiated for better coverage when higher wages were not possible.

Also it isn't 17% out of the paycheck. The majority is paid by employer (as a negotiated condition).

So while the plan may be say $900 per year. It is $3000 by employee + $6000 by employer (or $2K/$7K split).

For many companies who said no to higher wages this was the employees "pay increase". Same pay but better benefits.

Now the have the same wage and are getting hit by 40% tax on their benefit.

[Land Shark]

18. Actual EFFECT of the tax is to penalize really good policies as "cadillacs" so we all have crap

for a policy - but that's the kind of policy insurance companies make the most money on.

[mzmolly]

13. Which is why we need to dump this portion of the Senate bill.

eom

[amborin]

17. also a plan to push people to opt for worse coverage