Healthcare Reform Update - 12Jan10

"Unions Denounce Tax on Cadillac Plans"

• Labor unions are outraged at President Obama’s endorsement of the proposed tax on high-priced, employer-sponsored health insurance policies that is included in the Senate healthcare bill.
• The 40 percent excise tax would apply to individual insurance policies with annual premiums above $8,500 and family policies above $23,000.
• Opponents of the tax say it would hit not only wealthy executives with expensive benefits, but also many rank-and-file union members, many of whom settled for lower wage increases in exchange for more generous health benefits.
• The House bill does not include the excise tax, and instead would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on wealthy Americans.
• The tax is a critical revenue component in the Senate’s bill. Many economists support the tax because of its potential to hold down costs.
• On Monday, in a private White House meeting, President Obama told union leaders that he remained committed to taxing high-cost insurance policies as a way to drive down health costs, but signaled he was willing to amend the proposal to “make this work for working families.”
• Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/business/09union.htm
  

"Massachusetts Senate Race Becoming a Proxy on Health Bill"

• The special election on January 19 to decide the late Ted Kennedy’s successor in the U.S. Senate has turned into a proxy battle over the fate of the healthcare overhaul.
• Anxious to ensure passage of healthcare reform, Kennedy requested shortly before his death that state law be changed to allow an appointee to fill the Senate vacancy. The legislature consented, and former Kennedy aide Paul Kirk was appointed to the spot in September.
• That spot is now up for grabs in the special election, which was considered a guaranteed win for the Democrat candidate. However, new poll numbers show Republican Scott Brown, an anti-healthcare bill dark horse candidate, pulling alongside Democrat candidate Martha Coakley.
• Brown has promised to be the 41st vote to uphold a Republican filibuster against the bill, launching a campaign to rouse the state's GOP constituency in hopes that voter turnout could become the game-changer.
• Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/12/us/politics/AP-US-Kennedy-Successor.html