When ObamaCare was not yet even in its cradle, experts advocated including a tax on "Cadillac Plans" -- that is, expensive health care plans for which the individual employee bears little cost. Ultimately, we ended up with a "solution" under which any health insurer or employer offering a plan exceeding $10,200 per individual or $27,500 per family would have to pay a 40% tax on everything above those limits.
One suspects that a government grievance underlay this "solution." Here's why: While wages are taxed at the local, state and federal level -- and subject to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes -- health benefits aren't. Thanks to the tax free treatment of employer health coverage, the government was missing out on a whole lot of tax revenues. Can't let that happen, can we?!
Like so much of ObamaCare, this sounded to many like unicorns-and-rainbows until everyone really looked a little more closely. Now, not surprisingly, municipal workers across the country are concerned because state and local governments are pushing them to accept lower benefits, according to The New York Times. The "Cadillac" plans they've been accustomed to will just cost too much for municipalities and states to provide, once a 40% excise tax is tacked on.
As the rubber begins to meet the road on ObamaCare, there is one bipartisan area of agreement: The law is going to destroy the health care that has worked for hundreds of millions of Americans. There has got to be a better way.