How many people have robust benefits such as this:
The proposed 40 percent tax would affect family plans worth more than $23,000 and those worth $8,500 for individuals and could raise $149 billion in new tax revenues over 10 years.Obama may consider fixes to Labor's complaints, such as raising the threshold. Kaiser Health news has summaries from various news outlets on Obama's meeting with Labor:
Labor leaders were invited to the White House to discuss negotiations to merge the House- and Senate-passed health overhaul packages.
The Washington Post: "The final bill will not include the House's government-run insurance plan, or 'public option'; it will probably include the Senate's new tax on high-cost health plans that could affect many union members; and its penalties for employers who do not provide insurance coverage will probably be closer to the more lenient terms in the Senate bill." Earlier in the day, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned at the National Press Club that Democrats risk a replay of the "Democratic blowout in the 1994 elections, when, after the passage of NAFTA and other disappointments to unions, "'there was no way to persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn't tell the difference between the two parties'" (MacGillis, 1/12).
The New York Times: During a private session designed to "search for a sort of compromise," President Barack Obama told the union leaders "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 proposed 40 percent tax would affect family plans worth more than $23,000 and those worth $8,500 for individuals and could raise $149 billion in new tax revenues over 10 years. Read more at KHN
