Drawing his first line in the sand on health care, Democratic President Barack Obama said he will veto any bill that taxes workers’ health care benefits.
Interviewed July 20 on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, aired by the Public Broadcasting System, the president first praised Congress for moving farther on comprehensive health care reform than any other set of lawmakers has ever done. Then he lowered the boom. Obama insisted Congress create a government-run public option alternative to the private insurers.
And he warned lawmakers not to not tax benefits, should workers choose to keep private insurance. “If we get that (tax) in it, I would veto the bill,” he said.
The tax issue came up in a discussion of how to help pay the $1 trillion 10-year cost of extending coverage to all, including the 47 million uninsured. Some key lawmakers, led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., want to tax benefits. That idea, and the government-run public option alternative to the insurance companies, have become the top flashpoints in the health care debate.
Rather than taxing benefits to raise the money, Obama reiterated his preference for a surtax on the rich. And he said he would consider -- though he did not know the details -- taxing the health insurance companies, and banning them from passing the taxes through to their customers.
“On health care, there’s a reason it hasn’t been done in 50 years: A lot of special interests are very protective of the status quo,” Obama said of the insurers and other unnamed lobbies. “But the American people know the status quo is unsustainable.
"So we are adhering to our principles: If people are satisfied with their health care and with their doctor, they don’t have to give them up. But if they want it, there is an alternative,” the government-run public option.
The SMWIA, along with the rest of organized labor strongly backs the government-run alternative to the insurers, to help cut costs and keep the companies honest. It is one of two problems that tangled up the health care legislation. The other problem is how to pay for health care for all. Health care now takes $2.5 trillion annually, one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Without curbing costs, that share would escalate, Obama warned.
Unions strongly oppose taxing workers’ health benefits, with the SMWIA in the
lead against Baucus’ idea. The SMWIA will run TV, print and social media ads lambasting senators who support taxing benefits.
Obama has sided with Labor over Senators like Max Baucus who proposed the idea:
“I said during the presidential campaign that it would be disruptive,” when GOP nominee John McCain proposed taxing benefits, Obama stated. “Employers would stop providing care. But if we get that (tax) in it, I would veto the bill.”