(Thumbnail image from laborpains.org)
“One of the things that Sen. Baucus does, and you have endorsed, at least in concept is a fee. Slapping a fee on Cadillac insurance plans. The fee would go on the insurance company and not on the individual but as you know many of your allies; sen. rockafeller, other democrats and many union presidents who have helped you in this fight have said ‘you know what? That insurance company will pass that on to consumer.’ And they think it’s a backdoor way of potentially violating your promise during the campaign not to raise taxes.”
That was John King of CNN’s State of the Union questioning President Obama on Sunday. A sticking point in the health care debate is how to pay for reform. The Cadillac tax – on plans costing more than $8,000 for an individual and $21,000 for a family - could pay for a quarter of the Baucus plan and is drawing specific questions across the board.
We’re looking at perspectives from CBS, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Thaindian.com, and The New York Times.
First let’s go to NPR who points out the President generally avoided answering the Cadillac question.
"But in response to questions about whether his plan would raise costs across the board the president told CBS: 'Health care inflation went up 5.5% this past year when inflation was actually negative.'
ABC: 'Health care premiums went up five and a half percent.” CNN: “Well, last year your premiums went up 5.5%, five and a half percent.'
And NBC: 'Five and a half increase in their premiums, even though inflation was negative on everything else.'”
The Wall Street Journal focused on the tax’s possible effects on organized labor – one of the president’s most strident supporters – because they tend to have lower salaries but “generous benefits.”
"We don't have Cadillac salaries," said Robert Corner, a 63-year-old who works for Nebraska's department of roads in Lincoln and earns just over $50,000 a year. His parent union, estimates that its average family health plan in Nebraska will be worth $31,000 in 2013.”
The New York Times reports a blanket rule for all Americans does not take in to account cost of living nationwide.
“People who live in high-cost areas, like the Northeast or California, would also have a greater risk that their insurance plans would set off the excise tax — not because the coverage is particularly generous, but because the price of their policies reflects the higher medical costs where they live.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele followed Obama on CBS’ Face the Nation, framing the whole program as a tax on the middle class.
“All this cutting inefficiency, I mean creating efficiency and cutting costs within various programs, I mean Washington’s been saying that for generations. I mean, that’s just not the business of government. It doesn’t do that. And I don’t think in something particularly mammoth as health care that you’re going to be able to go in and create a trillion dollars worth of savings.”
A blogger on Thaindian.com said that quantity or quality aspect of the Baucus proposal may still change the powerful minds of healthcare lobbyists.
“As they scoured the 223-page document, many of the most influential players found elements to dislike, but the prospect of gaining 30 million new customers may yet win the day for Obama, analysts suggested.”
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