WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators working on President Barack Obama's health overhaul bill appear likely to drop a proposed income tax increase on high-wage earners and possibly jettison a requirement for large businesses to offer coverage to their employees, Democratic officials said Tuesday.
Negotiators are considering extending the Medicare payroll tax, which now applies only to income from wages, to cover some of the investment earnings of couples making more than $250,000 a year, and individuals earning above $200,000. That could make up lost revenue from dropping the high-wage income tax and scaling back a proposed tax on high-value insurance plans, which is strongly opposed by organized labor and House Democrats.
On another high-profile issue, the negotiators are discussing a hybrid of a proposed national insurance exchange contained in the House bill and the state-by-state approach favored by the Senate. House Democrats are pressing for a national system to apply pressure to the insurance industry after their proposal for a new government-run insurance option was ruled out due to opposition from Senate moderates.
These officials also said key lawmakers and the White House were hoping to include more money to protect state governments from the cost of an expansion of the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor. That issue flared after Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., the critical 60th vote for the health care bill in the Senate, got a deal for the federal government to pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion in his state forever, whereas other states would have to pick up part of the tab after a few years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/obama-supports-national-h_n_420688.htmlWell, finally! This is the first time I've seen the President endorse items from the House side.
The article goes on to state he is looking for a way to 'tweak' the excise tax on high priced benefits. One proposal was to, possible, exempt high priced plans that are part of union contracts. The unions do not favor that approach as they want to see union and non union workers protected and do not want to be seen as getting special treatment (well, there goes the idea the unions were just out for themselves). What I think will, likely, emerge from this is they will raise the amount of the premiums which will be subject to the tax.
President Obama is also said to favor the more generous subsidies of the House version and revoking the anti trust exemption (good).
Another item, reported in other articles today are that the employer mandate from the House probably will, likely, be dropped. The Senate bill does not have an employer mandate but would penalize companies whose employees receive government assistance (subsidies) to help with their premiums. This, IMO, would lead to problems with employers not hiring the poor. For instance single mothers would probably have a hard time finding work (bad).
Other issues you might consider letting your reps and the White House know about are: the wellness programs which will allow insurance companies to charge you higher rates if you don't meet certain goals (essentially a way to charge more for those with preexisting conditions or health concerns), the annual limits loophole, the loophole allowing rescissions.
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