Health Care Tax: Union Leaders Outline Big Improvements for All Working Families

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFL-CIO News Blog

by Mike Hall, Jan 14, 2010

Following two days of intense negotiations at the White House, union leaders believe they are on the verge of winning significant improvements for working families in the pending health care reform legislation.

In a conference call this afternoon with leaders from AFL-CIO unions, Change to Win unions and the National Education Association (NEA), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters the final health care bill he expects to emerge is ”a milestone.”

“We’ve been fighting for health care for over 60 years, and we are on the threshold of a significant achievement….But we don’t look at this as the end of the fight, but another step in the quest for real reform.”

The discussions with the White House envision major changes for all working families in the excise tax that the Senate bill imposes on high-cost health care plans, including:

Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/01/14/health-care-tax-union-leaders-outline-big-improvements-for-all-working-families/

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FULL story at link. This story is very different than several MSN or uninformed sources. Here is what ALL workers won today.

[wroberts189]

1. knr ... Thank You AFL-CIO ! nt

[Hulk]

2. As a union president and active union rep....

...I want to be sure that you all understand that we OFTEN would settle for less salary versus higher fringe benefits. Knowing that medical and dental were going through the roof, we would compensate higher wages that may have kept up with what the public was going with to keep equivalent benefits by accepting better medical/dental coverage. IF, all of a sudden, we decide to TAX that medical dental plan.....we are taking a big screw for the negotiations that we worked for for our union employees.

[NBachers]

3. I rec'd and it stayed at zero

the un-rectums are out in force tonight

[Iowa]

4. K&R

These are some welcome, tiny improvements to this assault on working families. Every little bit helps, but the underlying structure of the whole damned thing is still a crock... a big gift to the insurance/pharmaceutical corps at the expense of the people. All it does is rearrange the deck chairs and shift the screwing around.