It's not a Cadillac plan, it's a Chevy, and it has a few dents!

So Baucus, instead of raising the tax rates on the very rich to what they were before George came along proposes taxing Cadillac health insurance. The problem is, what he calls Cadillac health insurance is union grade health insurance. It's not the insurance the CEOs get, it's the insurance the guys down on the line get. I have a Cadillac plan myself. It's pretty good, but it's not perfect. Right now I'm paying full price for two medications my insurance won't cover, at $385/month.

59 to 69. I had one of the later ones and drove a lot of the earlier ones. They were pretty nice cars and way ahead of their time. Their problem came from an odd way of constraining the rear suspensioin (a belt) which allowed the rear wheel to fold under upon failure. The one I had did that a month after I sold it and the driver was killed in the ensuing accident.

Looks good until you get rear ended.

:rofl:

I also had a bumper sticker on it that read "DANGER! UNEXPLODED PINTO"

worked right and will soon be abandoned.

His bill was an attempt to smoke the rushpublian out...see where their line in the sand was. What would they bite on that could be used to swing one or several over to get either a bill passed or into reconciliation. I'm definitely not defending Baucus...who not only is in the pocket of the big insurance lobbyists but his bill was the only one that shows were the limits are on what will get through and won't...especially if the bill has to be broken up and passed via reconciliation.

The fact this bill gets trashed so badly from right and left indicates it was the weathervane that satisfied no one...and that was obvious for quite a while. Without major revisions (and the ammendments will be fast and furious), there's a solid chance this bill never makes it out of committee...and if that happens, then I guess we'll just have to go with the Health Committee (Kennedy) bill along with the three House bills.


Baucus, in the end, may be too smart by half. By dragging things out and trying to find the "common ground", his final work is DOA. I suspect we'll see a far different bill if it ever comes to a floor vote.

My hopes are in the weeks ahead, we get a real hearing about costs...the large amount that insurance companies keep along with the real costs savings that will occur when you change the system from one that only deals with catastrophic care to one that emphasizes prevention.

I also have a "cadillac" policy...self insured...but it wasn't long ago I couldn't afford ANY insurance and took my chances. I don't want my children or anyone elses to be forced into that situation. Most of all, I want competition...no one gatekeeper. Much of the numbers being thrown around haven't taken into consideration the savings and I wish the President was more specific. The insurance companies have taken their best shot, now let's hope they have to justify what they do.

Cheers...

just shelled out almost $300 for her prescriptions, which usually cost her about $75. She called me from the pharmacy, crying.

She wasn't coherent enough to get a straight story; she kept saying something about a donut.

I'm headed off to her place today to find out more.

Is the medicare available to our senior citizens considered "cadillac" insurance?

medications up to a certain amount, then the insurance cuts out. Later on, after they spend a certain amount of their own money, it kicks back in. There is no excuse for it, and I've been shaking my head ever since it went into place wondering why there hasn't been more outrage about this. Seniors aren't popping pills for the hell of it.



My sympathies for your mother. With a tight budget, a sudden extra $225 for medicine you need to stay healthy is a shock.

when I was with her this morning.

I was dumbfounded, to say the least.

:wow:

Rolls Royce plans that we pay for.

...because of tax incentives to do so.

But yes, union workers are the people who will be hurt by a new tax on expensive health care plans.

We'll have to see.