"Unions tentatively struck a deal Tuesday to exempt collectively bargained healthcare plans from a tax on high-cost plans expected to be used to help raise revenue for the healthcare overhaul," CongressDaily reports.
"AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger met with House Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi Tuesday, a day after labor leaders met at the White House to express their opposition to the excise tax. … Exempting collectively bargained plans would appease unions that often offer expensive health plans in lieu of higher wages. The deal could also help Obama avoid breaking his promise not to tax those earning less than $200,000" (Edney, 1/13).
The president, however, has weighed in more on the Senate's side, in favor of the tax, and in support of a commission with the power to trim Medicare spending, The Associated Press/The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "The move away from the House approaches is a bow to the influence of Senate moderates who oppose those and other liberal priorities and are critical to Reid's fragile majority in support of the bill" (Werner, 1/13).
The New York Times: "Under the Senate bill, the federal government would impose a 40 percent tax on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage exceeding $8,500 a year for an individual and $23,000 for a family. The bill would make certain allowances for plans covering retirees 55 and older and workers in high-risk occupations. Ms. Pelosi noted that the president wanted the tax. But Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, said: 'The view of many progressives is that the tax is unacceptable. It would affect a lot of middle-income people.'"
"Union leaders said they feared that under the formula in the Senate bill, the tax would hit more and more health plans, which would pass on the cost to more and more workers" (Pear and Herszenhorn, 1/12).