Obama jobs plan: Raise taxes on health care (for those making over 200 grand)

[cali]

(fucking Politico)

more on the value of their health coverage. | AP Photo Close
By MATT DOBIAS | 9/15/11 9:02 AM EDT

The White House wants another shot at requiring some Americans to pay more for their employer-backed health coverage, despite a previously tepid response from the very same lawmakers needed to advance the proposal.

Nearly imperceptible to all but the most trained tax policy eyes, President Barack Obama’s blueprint to boost employment hinges partly on a provision that makes health plans taxable for individuals who make more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.


“If your incomes are above those levels, and you benefit from employer-sponsored health insurance, you’re going to have to pay a modest amount of tax on the value of the health insurance,” explains Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The tax provision was included as a way to defray the nearly $447 billion price tag for Obama’s template to get Americans back to work.

Under the White House’s calculations, the provision means that higher earners would pay about 7 percent more on the value of their health coverage. Put another way, it caps what the wealthy can deduct for the cost of their coverage, lowering the amount to 28 cents.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63587.html#ixzz1Y3PNSb2o

[SheilaT]

1. No. Taxing health care is a very bad

idea. I don't care how much you make. Yes, raise income taxes on the wealthy, and meanwhile work on making real progress to health care for all.

[dennis4868]

2. why?

[frylock]

4. it would be the biggest middle-class tax increase in history and out of line with our basic values

[SheilaT]

7. Because doing that re-affirms the Republican

notion that health care is a privilege, not a right for all.

Remember back when the "Obamacare" was being crafted, and a lot of those involved wanted to tax the so-called Cadillac health care plans? Those plans were as good as they were because unions had fought long and hard for them, and in most, maybe all, cases, real wages had been given up to get the health care. And now the bastards wanted to tax them!

I don't care how rich you are. Health care should be a fundamental right for everyone in this country, as it is in every other first world nation on this planet.

Again, tax the income. Don't tax the health care.

[Fumesucker]

3. Hmm..that automatically limits the amount any particular wealthy person is going to pay..

It's also going to fall most heavily on those making just over $200K and least heavily on the Billion Dollar Babies.

It's astounding watching the politicians flip and flop like beached fish to avoid the obvious, raise income taxes on the wealthy and bring capital gains rates up to the same as earned income at least in some cases.

[Frank Cannon]

5. WTF? Does anyone know what the hell they're doing in D.C.?

Seriously, this just sounds like a bad, bad, bad idea no matter how you look at it.

[Fumesucker]

6. Oh, they know exactly what they're doing..

This time they're screwing the upper middle class in order to let the wealthy off the hook for paying a few more percent in taxes.