WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Opposition is growing in the U.S. House of Representatives to a proposal to tax high cost health insurance plans as a way to finance a sweeping healthcare reform that would provide medical coverage to millions of uninsured people, lawmakers said on Wednesday.
Heavy lobbying by labor unions against the proposed tax has help strengthen the opposition to the proposed excise tax, Representative Gerry Connolly told reporters following a closed door meeting of House Democrats on the proposed healthcare overhaul.
A letter signed by 156 Democrats urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reject any excise tax on high cost health care plans."This letter should send a clear signal to House Leadership that an excise tax on health plans will be an additional and substantial tax burden on working families," said Representative Joe Courtney, who helped write the letter.
It goes without saying that the Baucus plan won't even appear deficit neutral on paper with this tax, but the Unions have the pull and are putting the pressure on Dems to drop the idea. Of course the House Dems want tax the rich to pay for these plans, of course that would also violate Obama'a pledge to not raise taxes in a recession, so pretty much the O is in a political lock box of his own making.
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