Health Care, Cadillac Plans and Unions

The landscape has changed for health care legislation since Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts, but an associate of mine said something interesting to me yesteday that I thought I would pass on.

The topic is the way that disagreement was resolved between the House and Senate on the Senate health legislation's proposed tax on expensive health care plans (so called "Cadillac Plans"). The Senate had put in a provision to tax certain health plans that cost more than the average plan. This tax would have generated a substantial amount of money to pay for the new plan ($60 Billion of the $900 Billion cost).

The Unions (broadly speaking) were opposed to this proposed tax because many Union members have Cadillac Plans. Under the Senate version, many Union members would have had to pay thousands of dollars per year in additional tax because their health plans were more expensive than the average American. So, the House and Senate decided to delay for six years (i.e. cancel indefinitely) the imposition of this tax on Cadillac Plans . . . but only for people who are part of a collective bargaining employment arrangement (i.e. Union members).

So, those of us who have more expensive health plans would pay the tax . . . only if we are not members of Unions. We would each pay several thousand dollars per year in additional taxes . . . if we are not Union members.

Do you get where this is going? The Unions, and their backers, have created a back-channel method of providing a massive incentive for people to join Unions (and a massive financial penalty for NOT being a Union member). It could conceivably be cheaper for people to join a Union and pay Union dues, then it would be for them to remain non-Union and pay the tax on their health plan.

Slick, isn't it? Since Unions can't convince people to join, and remain members of, Unions ("Card Check" died last year), they will use their lobbyists and their hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign contributions, to have Congress basically legislate financial penalties for workers . . . unless they join Unions.

Write your Congressman or Senator about this one . . . it needs to go!