home

Excise Tax Will Reduce Health Care Benefits for Workers With Little "Savings" In Return

Via Jon Walker, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports:

The tax would be 40 pecent of the excess benefit value above these thresholds. We estimate that, in aggregate, affected employers would reduce their benefit packages in such a way as to eliminate about three-quarters of the current excess benefit value. The resulting higher cost-sharing requirements for employees would have an initial, significant impact on the overall level of health expenditures. Moreover, because health care costs would generally increase faster than the CPI plus 1 percent, we anticipate additional, incremental benefit coverage reductions in future years to prevent an increase in the share of employer coverage subject to the excise tax. These further adjustments would contribute to a small reduction in the growth in health care expenditures for affected employees through at least 2019.16 In 2019, these impacts would reduce total NHE by an estimated 0.3 percent.

(Emphasis supplied.) There's your "reform."

Speaking for me only

< Saturday Morning Doldrums and Open Thread | Village "Wisdom" >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    You know, I more and more think (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by ruffian on Sat Dec 12, 2009 at 11:50:13 AM EST
    the "HCR" has to be stopped in its tracks. We are going to be living with the major provisions and fine print in this thing for a long time and the process we have all witnessed has given me no confidence that it is not all a load of cr*p, in fact, quite the contrary.

    Not quite ready to protest it in the streets, but I'm not at all happy with how it is going.

    I'm coming around (none / 0) (#2)
    by jeffinalabama on Sat Dec 12, 2009 at 12:05:50 PM EST
    to this point of view also... but trying to withhold absolute judgement right now. I'm already skeptical, though.

    Parent
    You know (none / 0) (#3)
    by Steve M on Sat Dec 12, 2009 at 06:04:33 PM EST
    I'm not sure I buy the CBO's methodology that says the excise tax will lead to savings, but you kinda don't even discuss it.

    What does all this mean, for me? (none / 0) (#4)
    by Lora on Sat Dec 12, 2009 at 10:30:46 PM EST
    My coverage will suck and my cost will be high, as I suspected from the beginning?  

    Union? (none / 0) (#5)
    by KLCarten on Sun Dec 13, 2009 at 01:15:09 AM EST
    When I was able to work, I was a union electrician, and health care was part of our benefits. We had two benefits our health care package paid by the contractors and our pension also paid by them.

    When I became a journeymen(woman in my case), the top out pay was 16.85 an hour.  When I left due to my hips being shot, the pay was 19.95, which was 12 years later, as you can see my wages did not shoot up, but my health care did and I was happy to keep the great insurance that the union provided me.

    Now, I worry about my brother and sisters in the union and I am talking all the trades just not I.B.E.W., this is going to affect them hard and I also think state workers, which my husband and mother in law are. My husband makes 600.00 every two weeks, as you can see Tn. don't pay that great but the benefits such as health care and pension package really makes it a good job. At this point anyone with a job that offers insurance seems to be a lucky person.  

    This tax is not going to affect the CEO, it will effect the middle class worker that still has a job. I am so totally disgusted with Congress and Obama, at least with Obama I knew I wasnt getting a real dem, but what congress has done, I can not write what I really think.  Think construction worker and a very foul mouth, and there it is.