As health insurance reform moves through Congress, the Senate is proposing to pay for it, in part, by taxing insurance companies that offer comprehensive health plans. This tax would ultimately be passed on to workers. The bill just approved by the House does not include this tax.
It happens often in Washington: A perception emerges and soon hardens into fact. Take the proposed tax on high-cost insurance plans in the Senate's health-care legislation. Because organized labor took the lead in opposing the tax, the assumption took hold that it would hit unions the hardest.
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said today that the agreement reached Thursday with the White House on the Senate’s proposed health insurance excise tax moves the country much closer to providing affordable health insurance for all Americans.
One of the few things we can be sure of when Congress finally enacts health-care reform is that the battle will rage on, unabated. Republicans will attack the law's weaknesses (and strengths), while Democrats will point to provisions that are popular and take effect immediately, such as the ban on insurers denying coverage for preexisting conditions.
