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AP sources: Employer health mandate may be dropped
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| Contributor | particleman |
| Last Edited | particleman Jan 12, 2010 06:58pm |
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| Category | Speculative |
| Author | ERICA WERNER |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Wednesday, January 13, 2010 12:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | House and Senate negotiators working on President Barack Obama's health overhaul bill appear likely to drop a proposed income tax increase on high-wage earners and possibly jettison a requirement for large businesses to offer coverage to their employees, Democratic officials said Tuesday.
Negotiators are considering extending the Medicare payroll tax, which now applies only to income from wages, to cover some of the investment earnings of couples making more than $250,000 a year, and individuals earning above $200,000. That could make up lost revenue from dropping the high-wage income tax and scaling back a proposed tax on high-value insurance plans, which is strongly opposed by organized labor and House Democrats.
On another high-profile issue, the negotiators are discussing a hybrid of a proposed national insurance exchange contained in the House bill and the state-by-state approach favored by the Senate. House Democrats are pressing for a national system to apply pressure to the insurance industry after their proposal for a new government-run insurance option was ruled out due to opposition from Senate moderates.
These officials also said key lawmakers and the White House were hoping to include more money to protect state governments from the cost of an expansion of the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor. That issue flared after Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., the critical 60th vote for the health care bill in the Senate, got a deal for the federal government to pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion in his state forever, whereas other states would have to pick up part of the tab after a few years. |
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