Obama Gives Thumbs Up to Taxing High-End Health Care Plans

Congress got the thumbs-up today to tax those high-end health care plans all you rich people lust after. That's Obama's plan:  tax you...to pay for them. Don't you know Democrats are desperately wishing they had not passed this disgusting thing out the Senate before Christmas? They took all that grief on their Christmas vacation - with more to come.

 "I'm on record as saying that taxing Cadillac plans that don't make people healthier but just take more money out of their pockets because they're paying more for insurance than they need to, that's actually a good idea, and that helps bend the cost curve," the president said in an interview with National Public Radio just before Christmas. "That helps to reduce the cost of health care over the long term. I think that's a smart thing to do." ~ Barack Obama

How comforting is it to know that your President is concerned about your paying far too much when it can't possibly make you healthier. He obviously obsesses over your bad decisions.

The meeting today, was yet ANOTHER private meeting and we're learning the details from "anonymous:"

House Democrats want to raise income taxes on high-income individuals instead and are reluctant to abandon that approach, while recognizing that they will have to bend on that and other issues so that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., can maintain his fragile 60-vote majority support for the bill.

The bending over has to be getting old by now for those "moderates" who assured their voters they would remain "moderate" rather than bent-double.

Here's what will happen: Good insurance plans will be taxed and as soon as this health care bill is done, income tax will go up for the same people hit for having the audacity to provide the health care of their choice...for themselves.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution provides an overview of differences and similarities of the House and Senate bills:

The House and Senate bills are alike in many ways. Both impose first-time requirements for almost all Americans to purchase health insurance, providing subsidies for lower- and middle-income people to help them do so, though the subsidies in the House bill are more generous. Both establish new marketplaces called exchanges where people can go to shop for and compare health insurance plans. Both would ban unpopular insurance company practices including denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions.

Differences include whom to tax, how many people to cover, how to restrict taxpayer funding for abortion and whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to buy coverage in the new markets with their own money. The House bill covers about 36 million uninsured Americans over 10 years, costing more than $1 trillion, while the cheaper Senate bill covers about 31 million.

House Democrats are steeling themselves to abandon establishment of a new government insurance plan opposed by moderates in the Senate, but in return hope to get the Senate to rescind insurers' antitrust exemption, makesubsidies more affordable and agree to establishment of national rather than state health insurance exchanges, among other things. Obama has signaled his support for the House position on the subsidies and other areas, aides said.

The difference in how the bills are paid for is emerging as among the toughest disputes.

The House wants to increase income taxes on individuals making more than $500,000 and couples over $1 million, which would raise $460 billion over 10 years to pay for the bill. The Senate wants to tax insurance companies on plans valued at over $8,500 for individuals and $23,000 for couples, raising $150 billion. Most analysts say the insurance tax would be passed on to consumers, and organized labor is strongly opposed, as are House Democrats, some of whom contend that the tax would violate Obama's campaign pledge not to tax the middle class.

 Taxes, immigration and Universal Voter Registeration, all coming at us in 2010. Throw the criminals out. Thanks to David Lemon at Clay to Bronze for the quick eye.