Health insurance fee draws GOP attacks

The fee, required by the health law, is on private insurance plans and is to help pay for comparative effectiveness research.

The Hill: GOP Hits New Fee On Health Plans
The health care law tacks on a fee of $1 per year to private insurance plans. The money will fund comparative effectiveness research -; studies into which treatments work best for particular conditions. The Senate Republican Policy Committee contrasted the fee with Obama's opposition, during the 2008 campaign, to taxing employer-based health benefits. That debate centered around the tax exclusion for healthcare coverage, but the committee said the comparative effectiveness fee is still a tax on insurance (Baker, 1/3).

Politico Pro: GOP Steps Up Attack On Comparative Effectiveness Institute
The Republican Policy Committee attacked health care reform's comparative effectiveness research program late Tuesday, calling it a tax on the middle class to fund research that "could be used to justify placing limits on costly medical treatments." The move appears to warrant the concerns of comparative effectiveness research supporters who worry it will be engulfed -; again -; by the political rhetoric of health care rationing and "death panels" (Norman, 1/3).