President Signals Flexibility on Health Plan Tax (NYT) - union pressure is working

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/health/policy/12health.html

WASHINGTON — President Obama told union leaders at a private White House meeting on Monday that he remained committed to taxing high-cost insurance policies as a way to drive down health costs. But he also signaled that he was willing to amend the proposal to “make this work for working families,” a senior administration official said.

The excise tax is a major point of contention as White House and Congressional negotiators seek agreement on a final version of a sweeping bill that would extend health coverage to more than 30 million Americans. The Senate version of the bill includes such a tax on employer-sponsored health benefits; the House version does not. Union leaders deeply oppose the tax.

Mr. Obama’s remarks, at an hourlong session with a dozen labor leaders in the White House Roosevelt Room, came just hours after the new president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Richard L. Trumka, delivered a speech at the National Press Club in which he criticized the tax as a “policy that benefits elites” and warned that Democrats would pay a price at the polls if it was enacted.

Privately, Mr. Obama and the union officials used Monday’s session to search for a sort of compromise, said a union leader who was briefed on the discussion. This official, who said the tone of the meeting was friendly, said it was clear that there would be some sort of excise tax in the final bill, but that the president “threw out some new concepts” in how it might be designed.

-snip-

The machinists’ union announced Monday that its executive council had unanimously voted to oppose any health bill that was financed by taxing the value of workers’ existing health plans, and the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Harold A. Schaitberger, accused Mr. Obama of abandoning his campaign promise not to tax the middle class.

“We held President Bush accountable when he made decisions that had a negative impact on our members’ jobs and lives,” Mr. Schaitberger, who did not attend the White House session, said in a statement. “We will do the same with President Obama.”

Mr. Trumka and other union leaders said before Monday’s meeting that they intended to tell Mr. Obama that the tax would be economically and politically unwise. The union officials support a tax approved by the House: a surcharge on couples earning more than $1 million a year.

-snip-

[Motown_Johnny]

1. IMO, the tax (if any) should not take effect until the current contracts expire

so that unions can take that tax into account in their negotiations for their new contracts.



Adding a tax to a benefit in existing contracts is a problem

[shopgreen]

2. Obama also said he would veto any bill without a public option! Should I believe

him now? NOPE!

[hedgehog]

3. Is there a difference between high cost policies and

high benefit policies? We were just switched from one plan to another. Our benefits are supposed to be the same, and so far, so good, but the company's premium dropped by about 20% and ours dropped by about 30%.

[DJ13]

4. But he also signaled that he was willing to amend the proposal .....

But we're always being told that Obama doesnt have any sway with Congress to get certain (liberal) proposals included in the bill.

So does he, or not?

If he does then it shows he never wanted a public option, doesnt it?

[Better Believe It]

5. I'm worried that union officials are preparing to surrender to Obama and the Senate on this.

President Obama and the Senate leadership will raise the insurance tax threshold a little bit. This small concession may be enough to give the union officials the excuse they need to support the Senate bill. It will be made to appear that they won something significant, almost historic!

However, the House surtax on wealthy people, which is supported by the labor movement, will be dropped during their discussions (I hesitate to call them negotiations) with Obama and Senate leaders.

The Senate leadership is expecting the House to approve the Senate bill with relatively minor cosmetic changes and expect the House leadership to sell it.

That's the main reason why we are not having a public House/Senate conference. The House leadership is taking their marching orders from Senate "centrists" and Rahm Emanual acting on behalf of President Obama.