Post by boeslap on Jan 15, 2010 15:56:51 GMT -5
Labor, White House have deal
on insurance tax
Tentative agreement on high-cost health
plans resolves key sticking point
Jan 14,2010
WASHINGTON - In a major breakthrough, union leaders bowed Thursday
to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost health plans as part of landmark
health care legislation
The tentative agreement on the tax, which included significant concessions
by the administration, was disclosed as leading lawmakers set an informal
timetable of Friday for a compromise on the health care bill that
Obama made a top priority in taking office a year ago.
Democrats expressed the hope that the agreement would quickly
open the way for progress on other key issues where House and
Senate-passed bills differ, as well as attempts by the White House to
squeeze additional financial concessions from drug makers,
nursing homes and other health care providers. On a separate issue,
makers of generic drugs, backed by the White House
and a senior congressional ally, sought to reduce the patent protection
that pharmaceutical companies receive for their new-to-market biotech products.
The House and Senate bills both limit competition for 12 years.
The fast-paced events came as senior lawmakers went to the White House
for the second straight day of bargaining over terms of a final compromise,
and Obama gave a rousing speech to rank and file House
Democrats in a late-afternoon appearance in the Capitol complex.
Referring to polls that show lagging support for the legislation,
he told Democrats, "I know how big a lift this has been."
In remarks that look ahead to the fall campaign, he added,
"If Republicans want to campaign against what we've done by standing
up for the status quo and by standing up for insurance companies
over American families, that is a fight I want to have."
Republicans are nearly unanimously opposed to the legislation,
and have made clear they intend to try to turn it to their advantage
in midterm elections this fall in which 37 Senate seats and
all 435 House seats are at stake.
The president wants legislation to expand health care to millions
who lack it, crack down on insurance industry practices such as
denial of benefits on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions
and slow the growth of health care costs generally.
The president has told lawmakers he wants the tax on high-cost
plans included in the legislation to help rein in costs.
But that position courted conflict with labor leaders who fear
exposing their membership to higher taxes, as well as with
House Democrats who omitted it from
the legislation they initially passed.
The day's events underscored the urgency with which the White House
and top Democrats were working, and the tentative agreement
on a new tax on high-cost plans was the most prominent fruit of the effort.
"This was a very critical issue that had to be resolved,
and I think it has been," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J.,
who told reporters he had been briefed on the emerging
agreement to impose a tax on costly insurance plans.
While not all details were set, it appeared the union leaders
had backed down on their outright opposition to a new tax,
and the White House had agreed to several concessions to mollify their concerns.
In a significant victory for unions, the 40 percent excise tax would
not apply to policies covering workers in collective bargaining agreements,
state and local workers and members of
voluntary employee benefit associations through Dec. 31, 2017.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., and others said the tax would
apply to fewer plans than was the case in the Senate-passed
bill and would exclude the value of dental and vision coverage.
They added it would provide an exemption for residents of states
where the cost of health care is particularly high,
as well as for employees of high-risk professions.
A union official familiar with the details said the tentative agreement
would raise the threshold on insurance policies subject to tax from $8,500
in the Senate-passed bill to $8,900 for singles and from $23,000 to $24,000
for family coverage. Even the new thresholds would be subject to adjustment
if unexpected rises in health care occur by the time the plan is effective, this official said.
Additionally, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that
beginning in 2017, all health plans — union and nonunion —
would be permitted to seek coverage in insurance exchanges
that would be set up under the bill to allow consumers to shop
for coverage issued under federal regulations.
White House officials disputed that, saying the issue was not settled.
Originally, the tax included in the Senate bill was estimated to raise
$149 billion through 2019. Trumka said the revisions would reduce
that amount by $60 billion — money that negotiators would have to
find elsewhere or else reduce the coverage in the legislation.
While the tax would be applied to high-cost plans, the Congressional
Budget Office has said its principal impact would be to prompt
consumers to purchase lower-value coverage. That, in turn, would
raise the income tax they pay by reducing the deduction
they can take for health care expenses.
Officials said the agreement was thrashed out over more than
15 hours of negotiating at the White House that ended after
midnight Wednesday. Participants included Trumka; Andy Stern,
head of Service Employees International Union; Anna Burger, head of
Change to Win, and the leaders of unions representing teachers,
government workers, food and commercial workers, and electricians.
Obama's deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, was the lead White House
bargainer, althoughVice President Joe Biden also was involved periodically.
In an indication that lawmakers and the White House were driving
for a swift agreement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., issued a statement
pledging to have any final bill posted online for 72 hours before a vote is called.
A spokesman said the plan would require the Congressional
Budget Office to issue a formal report on the bill's cost and
coverage before the 72-hour clock began running.
Once a final compromise is reached, Democrats intend for a vote first
in the House, then a final showdown in the Senate. There, Majority Leader
Harry Reid will need to post a 60-vote majority to clear the way for final passage.
Republican opposition has been virtually unanimous in both houses —
only Rep. Anh (Joseph) Cao of Louisiana among GOP
lawmakers has voted for the bill — and there is not a vote to spare in the Senate.
There, Democrats have 58 votes; independents aligned with them hold two.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34859430/ns/politics-health_care_reform/
