The proposed 40% excise tax on high-end health insurance would affect insurance plans costing more than $21,000 for families or $8,000 for individuals.
Capitol Building. Photo by Humberto Moreno (cc2.0)
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Rich Trumka, President of AFL-CIO, is worried that democratic leaders are going to include an excise tax on high-end health insurance plans. This is not sitting well with him, as well as many other people close to the situation.
Trumka said, “Working families struggling to pay for healthcare should not be required to pay even more in the form of a new tax. When you fail to force insurance companies to be competitive and employers to pay their fair share, you have to come up with money elsewhere.”
There is no denying that this sort of tax would put an additional financial burden on tens of thousands of families. It will be interesting to see if the bill moves forward as is, or if changes are made to make it more accommodating to the masses.
If the government passes a single-payer health care system into law, it’s likely that the tax burden will fall initially on the wealthy and then spread to middle class and working class taxpayers. This excise tax is a prime example.
Health reform will damage our system.