By Dick Morris:
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Obamacare is the most Rube Goldberg type of universal healthcare imaginable. Nevertheless the President’s signature accomplishment has extended coverage to 16 million in less than three years.
Employer-paid health care coverage for workers exploded as a benefit during World War II as a way around wage and price controls. Today the percentage of people enjoying some form of coverage is the highest in 50 years due to Obamacare.
Anything less than “universal healthcare” (such as Obamacare) puts a greater effect on existing coverages. More must be paid by employers and employees to get enough money into the system to cover the previously uninsured.
The battle to get some type of universal coverage in 2009 was organized labor’s finest hour. Union members had the best employer-paid health insurance, but all major unions provided strong support for Obamacare to those who did not belong to unions.
Organized labor is now just waking up to what is its contribution to Obamacare will cost them. Members are resisting.
The target is the dreaded “Cadillac Tax” which doesn’t take effect until 2018 but is on the table now at every contract negotiation from big steel to the automakers to casino workers in Vegas. Only government and educational organizations and their unions either don’t have a clue or are pretending it will not be the next major jolt to taxpayers.
The “Cadillac Tax,” a form of excise assessment, would charge employers to pay 40 percent of the cost of benefits in excess of $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for a family to continue to subsidize Obamacare. While the first bill for this tax does not land on the employer’s desk until 2018, some health benefit programs are already known to be taxable.
Naturally, employers are looking to unions to give up some part of their packages to at least underwrite a share of the tax. Even without the “Cadillac Tax,” this is not the best time for labor to negotiate a new work contract.
Imports depress prices for US made goods. The economy is still not growing at the best rate. Continued low interest rates and the stock market depression generate poor returns for pension funds. A Republican-controlled Congress practically insures no help for unions from Washington . . . maybe.
Organized labor wants the “Cadillac Tax” repealed to eliminate their members’ share of paying for Obamacare. Will Republicans settle for a dismantling of some part of Obamacare, particularly when this effort enjoys strong support from major employers, unions, the US Chamber of Commerce, schools and municipal and state governments?
The Obama administration argues there is no other way to fill the hole created if the “Cadillac Tax” goes by the board. There is also fear a repeal of one section of Obamacare will set precedent for others.
Will there be a serious attempt to eliminate the tax through a coalition of Republicans and Democrat lawmakers beholding to unions? Will there be enough combined votes to overcome a certain Obama veto?
Suggested ways to make up for the budget shortfall when the “Cadillac Tax” is eliminated will not fly. Repeal the Bush-backed edict that the Federal Government cannot negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies or a separate tax on rich people are pipedreams in the current Congress.
Last week, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, looking for support from major unions, made a strong commitment to abolish the “Cadillac Tax.”
Bottom Line: This is just the latest example of how various groups are for programs that benefit all Americans . . . if someone else pays. The United States remains the only industrial nation without nationalized, universal health care and also is alone in refusing to regulate drug prices for government health programs. The “Cadillac Tax” will contribute over $90 billion over ten years. Without it, or a substitute revenue source, Obamacare will not survive.
Obamacare is on target to help cut health care by $700 billion from 2011 to 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Presidential candidates declaring he or she will abolish Obamacare on the first day in office are beginning to look more foolish.
