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.

The House would tax the wealthy to help pay for the uninsured. The richest Americans would give back some – not all – of the tax cuts they received this past decade. Families earning more than $1 million a year would pay a small tax surcharge. That would raise $426 billion to pay for health insurance reform, more than twice as much as the Senate plan.

The Senate wants to tax middle-class Americans by imposing this new excise tax. In addition to shifting costs to workers, the excise tax will probably force steep reductions in benefits.  

Many plans are expensive because they cover workers in dangerous occupations, or because they’re in regions where insurers have near-monopoly power, or because they cover a group that’s older than the general population. For whatever reason, this tax will fall on fully one-third of Americans in 10 years. The average affected household will pay $7,600 more in taxes between 2013 and 2019

The Teamsters Union strongly supports health insurance reform, but we oppose the financing plan being considered by the Senate. It is not in our members’ interest.

Congress should adopt the more sensible plan passed by the House – one that increases coverage of the uninsured, reduces health care costs, and  does not impose a new tax on the middle-class.