"Health analysts and critics of the tax say the measure will indirectly tax millions of middle-class workers who have high-cost insurance because of their age, health or the make-up of their company's work force. Proponents argue the tax will eventually reduce the cost of health insurance across the board by discouraging insurance companies from offering the most expensive coverage.
Courtney says it will result in a middle-class tax increase any way you slice it. That's a notion most House Democrats can't support, especially in an election year.
Despite the growing opposition to the tax from the left, including labor unions, and the president's own criticism of the concept during the 2008 campaign, news came last week that Obama had endorsed the idea and urged House negotiators to accept the Senate's tax structure, including the excise tax."
Många medlemmar av Representanthuset motsätter sig denna skatt. Det gör också arbetarrörelsen under Richard Trumkas ledning. Trumka träffade idag president Obama som försöker ena sitt parti bakom reformen. Men tidigare idag talade Trumka inför the National Press Club där han talade om ekonomin, arbetarnas situation och den sjukvårdsreform som debatteras i Kongressens båda kamrar. Där var han skarpt kritisk mot Senatens Caddilac-skatt, och varnade Demokraterna med en hänvisning till den stora förlusten i kongressvalet 1994 med orden:
Initiatives should be rooted in a crucial alliance of the middle class and the poor. But today, as I speak to you, something different is happening with health care.
On the one hand we have the House bill, which asks the small part of our country that has prospered in the last decade—the richest of the rich—to pay a little bit more in taxes so that most Americans can have health insurance. And the House bill reins in the power of health insurers and employers by having an employer mandate and a strong public option.
But thanks to the Senate rules, the appalling irresponsibility of the Senate Republicans and the power of the wealthy among some Democrats, the Senate bill instead drives a wedge between the middle class and the poor. The bill rightly seeks to ensure that most Americans have health insurance. But instead of taxing the rich, the Senate bill taxes the middle class by taxing workers’ health plans—not just union members’ health care; most of the 31 million insured employees who would be hit by the excise tax are not union members.
The tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families. This is a policy designed to benefit elites—in this case, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and irresponsible employers, at the expense of the broader public. It’s the same tragic pattern that got us where we are today, and I can assure you the labor movement is fighting with everything we’ve got to win health care reform that is worthy of the support of working men and women.
Let me be even blunter. In 1992, workers voted for Democrats who promised action on jobs, who talked about reining in corporate greed and who promised health care reform. Instead, we got NAFTA, an emboldened Wall Street – and not much more. We swallowed our disappointment and worked to preserve a Democratic majority in 1994 because we knew what the alternative was. But there was no way to persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn’t tell the difference between the two parties. Politicians who think that working people have it too good – too much health care, too much Social Security and Medicare, too much power on the job – are inviting a repeat of 1994.
Här är Richard Trumkas tal, som är väl värt att ses (citatet ovan finns i del 3):
Del 1:
Del 2:
Del 3:
Del 4:
Del 5:
Jag är ingen större anhängare av de stora fackföreningarna i USA (och inte av Trumkas Bush-bashing i del 4). Däremot råder det föga tvekan om att mindre fackföreningar fyller en viktig funktion, och att de flesta fackföreningar en gång i världen gjorde stor nytta för att hjälpa fattiga arbetare till en värdig arbetstillvaro. En film att rekommendera om just detta, är filmen North Country från 2005 baserad på den sanna historien om Lois Jensons tid som kvinnlig arbetare in en gruva i Minnesota i slutet av 1970- och början av 1980-talet.
Se även tidigare inlägg:
Obama - videovecka 51 20100109
Sjukvårdsjämkningen: den svåra abortfrågan 20100109
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar