There has been a lot of chatter about taxing "Cadillac" health plans. Most recently, the Max Baucus plan recommends taxing individuals or insurers paying premiums over $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families.
Apparently Senator Baucus doesn't have much contact with small business owners; unions; and entrepreneurs. If he did, he would know that those are low to average prices for health insurance premiums for small businesses. Add the proposed 35% excise tax to those premiums and thousands of people will start showing up at Grady and health "fairs" to receive medical services because the costs of offering health insurance will be prohibitive.
The New York Times reported yesterday:
About 14 percent of small employers, counted as those with fewer than 500 workers, now offer policies that would be subject to the excise tax, said Beth Umland, director of research for Mercer, a consulting firm that conducts an annual survey of employeebenefits. That compares with just 5 percent of large employers with 500 or more workers.
Before we sock small businesses and union workers with these excise taxes, lets take a look at insurance company executive compensation. In 2008, CEOs of the top 8 insurers received $67 million in salaries and bonues. This is down from $123 million in 2007! Those are just the CEOs!
There is something desperately wrong with a system that that generates this level of wealth on the health of our citizens.
