Health insurance tax might crowd out some employee benefits
The health-insurance excise tax that’s part of a Senate Finance Committee bill has been touted as a tax on “Cadillac” plans, but it might affect employers who think of their plan as more of a Chevy with a few nice options. The 40 percent tax would hit plans that cost more than $21,000 for a family, or $8,000 for an individual.
But Dennis Triplett, chief executive of UMB Healthcare Services, points out that those figures include a lot more than the basic health-insurance premium. They also include contributions to health savings accounts and flexible-spending accounts, and ancillary benefits like dental and vision coverage.
Triplett, speaking Wednesday to a group of UMB clients, said that many companies will trim benefits to remain under the cap. The first things to go may be things like vision and dental, he said:
You aggregate all the things and look at them, you’re going to say, “Do employees really need vision insurance?” In our plan it’s almost all paid for by employees. We thought we were being nice in offering them a group plan and getting them a good premium. But if we have to pay an excise taxk, that’s going to go out the window.
According to The Hill, some Senate Democrats are talking about raising the cap, so it wouldn’t affect as many employers. Here’s a question that I haven’t seen discussed, though: If employers are likely to trim their benefits in response to this punitive tax, how does Congress expect it to raise $200 billion? Most of the revenue, it seems to me, will prove to be illusory.
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
If democrats were no so focused on punishing those “evil” companies that dare to make profits they would see that by raising taxes everyone pays the price. Of course they will just spin it as more corporate greed and use it to push more government controls and the public option. “See companies are cutting coverage through private plans, they are greedy. Americans need a public option if they are going to get the care they want.” That will be the battle cry of the left. Somehow forgetting they caused it in the first place.
I dont have alot of informantion on the topic, but how do you feel about a high deductible health plan? I think it sounds pretty good….
There are going to be a lot of senators and reps looking for jobs when this crap gets shoved down our throats…………and Obama is going to be one term and join Jimmy Carter on the trash heap of presidential mistakes. 80% of Americans are satisfied with what they have, only to see it going away so Obama can socialize America
The health care proposals that Democrats are pushing will help those who don’t have health care and hurt those that do. I don’t understand why those who have health care can’t see that in the end they will end up with less no matter what. Even if the Democrats say they will raise the cap now, there will be a day when inflation eats away at the cap (which will probably not be indexed) and thus eventually what I forsee will occur - the end of certain benefits to avoid this excise tax. I wish more people had health care,,,,,but I don’t feel that I have to provide that to them at my expense. When did health care become a right? Is it somewhere in the constitution that I have to provide others with health care because they can not afford it on their own?
$8,000 for an individual is a Cadillac plan? I am paying now almost $7,000 for a catastrophic only plan that does not include prescriptions, dental, or vision. Of course, I am an individual payer. Group payers can get Cadillac plans for what I pay as an individual.
I just hope something passes that allows me to get rates near what big companies can get. I am definitely not satisfied with my health insurance.
If the health bill wants to tax some plans, it should tax plans based on the benefits, not on how much you pay. No matter what your health, you pay a lot more as you get older for the same benefits. And you pay a lot more if you are self employed and have to buy individual insurance.
Here is just another of the stealth ways that Obama is breaking another of his promises during the campaign…….no tax increase for those under $250M my butt………here is a big one coming our way….the cost of his misguided healthcare reform……….socialized medicine ain’t free…taxes are going up
Some people detest profits by corporations who deliver services……when the government delivers them, it is TAXES that replace profits because government has no incentive to keep costs down……..just raise taxes…profits? taxes? Capitalism? Socialism? you chose.
But this won’t affect people making under $250,000 a year, right Odumbo, RIGHT!!!!
Oh, I almost forgot, will this be like the alternative minimum tax. Remember they wanted the “rich” to pay more taxes. They forgot to include a cost of living clause in the law. With double digit inflation in health care how long will it be before everybody will be paying the tax?????