Written by
Two days ago the heads of the major labor unions, who were already stating their dislike of the extra tax on Cadillac health care plans, put Obama on notice. They warned him that if union health care plans were included in the Cadillac tax that has been proposed in the health care bill, the democrat members of congress would experience defeat 1994 style.
Obama conceded. All collective bargaining units will be exempt from the Cadillac Tax until 2018. That will save the unions about 60 billion dollars.
For those of you who do not know what a Cadillac plan is, you should probably look at yours, because you probably have one. A Cadillac plan is a health care plan that has a total annual cost (premiums only) of 8,000 dollars for a single payer, and 23,000 dollars for a family plan. The total includes not just what you contribute, but your employer as well and the cost of your Dental and vision plans are added in as well...unless of course you work for a Union where even after their sweet little deal expires in 2018, they get a little extension that exempts the costs of their Dental, vision, and flex plans.
Depending on what part of the country you live in, you may be looking at the amounts and asking what the big deal is. Well depending on what part of the country you live in, means that your costs may be far lower than others. Massachusetts, for example has incredibly high health care costs compared to the rest of the nation, where Idaho has some of the lowest.
You also have to look at other factors. Companies with thousands of employees have much more bargaining power with the insurance companies to help keep costs down. The companies that have only a few hundred or less typically pay much higher prices per employee per plan.
Regardless, this is just another bribe, in the long list of bribes, that Obama has given to get this legislation that no one wants passed.
1,101 days left.