Robert Reich: "make your voice heard" Nat'l call-in day is Today (don't allow the Cadillac tax):

[amborin]

So by taxing so-called Cadillac plans, the Senate bill would actually end up taxing the Chevy plans of a large portion of the middle class. And as time goes by, a still larger portion, since the Senate plan is geared to the overall rate of inflation rather than to the (much higher) rate of increases in health-care costs.

Defenders of the Senate plan say not to worry. Employers who bear the tax and therefore have an incentive to cut back on health care for their employees will make it up to employees in higher wages. But anyone taking even a passing glance at today's labor market knows this is wishful thinking. Employers have no incentive to raise wages when almost everyone is worried about keeping their jobs. (Besides, a dollar's worth of tax-free health benefit is worth more than a taxable dollar of wages.)

In any event, I thought a major purpose of health-care reform was to get more care to more people, not to cut it back. Even employees who get extra dollars of wages to make up for the cutbacks won't necessarily plow those wages back into health care.

Some say the Senate's excise tax is the only way to control long-term health care costs. Baloney. If a portion of the middle class loses their health care, they won't get the preventive care that's so crucial to containing long-term costs. If Congress wanted to do more cost containment it would allow Medicare and Medicaid to use their huge bargaining power to get lower costs from pharmaceutical makers and medical suppliers. And it would have a public option to compete with private insurers.

snip

But why even take these chances when the House bill simply and cleanly goes after the top 1 percent? It's not as if couples earning over a million can't afford to pay the tax. When I last looked, the top 1 percent was taking home a record 23 percent of total income. If anything, the Great Recession is widening the gap. It's bonus time on Wall Street again. But the middle class is taking a beating.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/13-2

here is Shop Green's OP from GDP, with telephone numbers to call:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x123533


from the UAW:

snip

But a dangerous provision inserted in the Senate version will impose an excise tax on health care plans that will force many to drop coverage and increase co-pays and deductibles for working families.

Hitting working families with added expenses is no way to help them out at a time when many are particularly economically vulnerable. Instead, UAW members should call their representative and senators on Wed., Jan. 13 to urge them to fix the final version of this otherwise good piece of legislation before President Obama signs it into law. Please call [phone] to convey this message to your representative and senators. Tell them Congress needs to pass health care reform now. But emphasize that they need to insist that the Senate's excise tax on health care plans must be removed, and instead that progressive measures be substituted that will require wealthy individuals and employers to pay their fair share.

After decades of foot-dragging by lawmakers and opposition from profit-hungry insurance and pharmaceutical industries, health care reform is close to becoming a reality. But our enthusiasm over this landmark legislation is tempered by the fact that it needs a big fix before becoming law. UAW members need to join with other labor activists and call their congressional representatives to fix the bill.

The labor movement will have a national call-in day on Wed., Jan. 13, so it’s important to call lawmakers at [phone] on that day. Millions of working families and 46 million Americans without health insurance -- including 7 million children -- are depending on it.

http://www.uaw.org/news/features/vw_fst1.cfm?fstId=115

[doc03]

1. I called Senator Sherrod Brown's office stating

my opposition to the Cadillac tax and also forcing people to buy insurance.