Machinists and Firefighters Unions oppose AFL-CIO/ White House deal on healthcare insurance taxes

AFL-CIO drops opposition to health care tax over objections from some unions
18 January 2010

WASHINGTON - After almost a week of pressure from the Obama White House and intense closed-door negotiations, union leaders decided to drop organized labor’s opposition to taxing health insurance.

Union leaders who agreed to the White House demands included AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel and Service Employees President Andy Stern – all of whom were among 11 union leaders who met privately with Obama for two hours on Jan. 11 on the tax.

But the Fire Fighters and Machinists, who were not in the White House talks, stayed opposed to taxing health care.

International Association of Fire Fighters President Harold Schaitberger called Obama’s support of taxing health insurance benefits, “a huge disappointment” that “cannot be ignored,” as it breaks Obama’s campaign promise not to do so. “If President Obama continues to support it and signs a bill that includes the excise tax on workers, we will hold him accountable,” Schaitberger said.

“The IAM opposes the excise tax, period. We believe it is unfair to our current members and particularly unfair to those members we hope to organize in the future,” said Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger. “If a temporary exemption is the best this Congress can offer the American people after the promises of the last election, they will have earned the wrath of voters in the next election."

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4321

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International Association of Machinists union (IAM)
Press Releases
January 15, 2010
Machinists Remain Opposed to Health Care Excise Tax

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C., January 14, 2010 – Despite the so-called agreement announced today by various labor organizations, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) reiterated its opposition to any health care reform legislation that is funded by taxing the value of workers’ existing health care benefits.

“The IAM opposes the excise tax, period. We believe it is unfair to our current members and particularly unfair to those members we hope to organize in the future,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “If a temporary exemption is the best this Congress can offer the American people after the promises of the last election, they will have earned the wrath of voters in the next election."

“By stringing this 'fix' out until 2018, our members will be pressured to agree to benefit cuts year after year in the vain hope they will be able avoid the excise tax. Companies will seek to shift costs while still cutting benefits to avoid eight years of health care premiums accelerating at fifteen to twenty percent per year.

“This is a huge ping pong ball that our elected leaders are trying to shove down the throats of hard-working Americans,” said Buffenbarger. “On the installment plan or all at once, a 40 percent excise tax on their health care benefits is hard to swallow. But the White House and the House and Senate Democratic leadership appear determined to play ping pong with this legislation until they get the votes they need.

“We will continue our opposition to this egregiously unfair tax.”

The IAM is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, representing nearly 700,000 active and retired members in dozens of industries.

http://www.goiam.org/index.php/news/press-releases/6708-machinists-remain-opposed-to-health-care-excise-tax

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News Release
January 14, 2010

Excise Tax Update

January 14, 2010 -- We are fully aware of the media reports this afternoon that there has been a deal reached between "labor," the White House and Congressional leaders on the excise tax in the health care reform legislation being debated.

On a conference call with the AFL-CIO Executive Council just minutes ago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka provided a report that outlined that purported "deal."

Let me state right here that this IAFF was not afforded an opportunity to be a part of the labor committee that participated in negotiations with the White House and Congressional leaders over the changes that are being reportedly made to the excise tax provision in the bill.

On Monday, January 11, in a conference call with the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO, conducted prior to the first meetings between the labor committee and the White House, I made it very clear to the union leaders who were selected by Trumka to go into those private discussions that our union was fully and completely opposed to any excise tax because it would either force a tax on the premiums of our members or force their health benefits to be cut. I was the only member of the AFL-CIO Executive Committee to take that position and our position was widely covered in the media over the past week.

In addition, as late as 1:30 p.m. this afternoon (January 14), I was one of four labor presidents invited to speak before the House Leadership and Democratic Caucus. At that event, I was the only speaker who, in very clear and emphatic terms, strongly reiterated that this IAFF remains completely opposed to an excise tax. I reaffirmed that this is bad policy and bad politics.

While the reports of the "deal" appear to show that the thresholds have increased and that state and local governments may have received a multi-year exemption, which should serve to ease the burden on our members, I still find it unacceptable that a form of the excise tax remains in the bill.

Internally, we will be analyzing the affects of any changes to the excise tax provision once they are formally released. Rest assured that this union will continue to fight the excise tax so that it doesn't affect any of our members and we will continue to update you as this process moves forward.

http://www.iaff.org/10News/011410ExciseTax.htm


January 11, 2010 Message from President Schaitberger on Excise Tax:

Excise Tax Fight

January 11, 2010 -- The core political principle of this union is we support those who support us. If you make promises to us, we will hold you accountable.

We held President Bush accountable when he made decisions that had a negative impact on our members' jobs and lives. We will do the same with this president and any future president.

Throughout the debate on health care reform, even before the proposed excise tax on so-called high cost health plans was proposed, our union has made it clear to Congress and President Obama that our goal is reducing health care costs while preserving the benefits our members already have without piling more taxes on the backs of hardworking Americans.

In 2008, then-candidate Obama promised three things. First, he would not raise taxes on folks making less than $250,000 a year. Second, he vowed not to tax your health insurance benefits. Third, he promised that under his health reform plan that people would be able to keep their existing coverage.

Now the administration is supporting a misguided excise tax on the premiums of some health plans that is in the bill passed by the Senate. This excise tax will affect many of the health plans covering our members. The Senate bill will either impose a tax on health care premiums provided to thousands of America's fire fighters, or to avoid the tax those benefits will be slashed.

I want to make sure every leader and member in this union knows the truth, which is that under this bill every special interest seemed to get something good – the insurance companies, the doctors, the drug companies all get something.

But, in the Senate bill, many of our members who have sacrificed for years to build solid health plans to protect their families will get screwed.
The deal isn't done, yet. The health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives does not contain this unacceptable tax and the leadership in the House, to date, is standing strong with us -- with 190 members of the Democratic Caucus signing a letter opposing the excise tax.

We applaud our House allies for their courage in waging this battle. And your union is continuing to fight to keep the excise tax out of the final bill.

We have made it clear to every senator and representative on Capitol Hill and to the president that we are fully and completely opposed to this tax and we will not compromise on it.

Rest assured that we are prepared to hold every elected official accountable on this issue, including the president.
I will update you again soon on the progress of this bill.

http://www.iaff.org/10News/011110ExciseTax.htm

For Immediate Release
January 6, 2010
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Nation’s Largest RN Organization Blasts Bid to Tax Benefits, Urges Other Reforms to Protect Patients, Families In Final Talks on Healthcare Reform Legislation

The nation’s largest union and professional organization of registered nurses today called on House members to hold the line in opposing a tax on workers’ healthcare benefits, and called for other changes in the final healthcare legislation to expand affordability and crack down on insurance industry abuses.

“It is unconscionable that workers and families with employer-sponsored health plans, who receive virtually no benefits from the proposed legislation, would have their health coverage taxed and seriously eroded,” said Deborah Burger, RN, co-president of the 150,000 member National Nurses United, formed last month through a unification of the California Nurses Association/NNOC, United American Nurses, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

“Enactment of this tax would be a disgraceful betrayal of working families and their yearning for genuine reform,” Burger said.

The excise tax on workers’ benefits is a central plank of the Senate version of the bill, and is supported by the White House, in contrast to the House bill which instead sets new taxes on the highest-income earners. Congressional Budget estimates say the tax would affect 19 percent of employer-paid plans, or 30 million Americans by 2016, a number that Citizens for Tax Justice says will soar to 58 million people by 2019.

“Advocates of the tax have made clear their intent: to force working people into cheaper, high deductible plans that provide less coverage and shift more costs to employees. The inevitable effect will be more people skipping needed medical care, enduring much higher out-of-pocket costs and risking financial ruin due to medical bills,” said NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN.

A Towers-Perrin employer survey last September found 86 percent of employers would pass along their higher costs to employees, “an especially bitter pill for those working families who were assured that health reform would not undermine their present coverage,” said NNU Co-president Jean Ross, RN. “They will be saddled with higher costs and less coverage, while insurance companies will still have free rein to raise premiums, co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance and other fees, and continue to routinely deny needed medical care.”

“Enactment of the tax, whose central premise is to control healthcare costs by reducing utilization of needed medical care while failing to control the pricing practices of the healthcare industry, would symbolize a central failing of the proposed legislation, ceding far too much to the insurers and the rest of the healthcare industry,” Burger added.

In addition to calling on Congressional leaders to drop the excise tax, NNU is calling on Congress to make other changes in the final bill, including:

1. A state waiver to ERISA, the federal employee retirement system, to allow states to pass Medicare for all/single-payer reforms without a court challenge from healthcare corporations.

2. Medicaid expansion to 150 percent of the poverty level (the House version) rather than the more limited Senate Medicaid expansion. Half of the increased coverage under the bill comes through Medicaid expansion; with the failure of Congress to stop the price gouging of the insurers and drug companies, the broadest possible increase in Medicaid eligibility is essential for American families.

3. Closure of the loopholes on the insurance regulations in the bills that ostensibly ban rescissions (insurers dropping people when they get sick) and refusal to sell policies to people with pre-existing conditions.

Among the ways to close those loopholes are:

A. Eliminate the state-based exchanges in favor of a strongly regulated federal exchange, to prohibit insurers from avoiding strong consumer-won protections in some states by issuing the policies in unregulated states.

B. Prohibit rescissions under any circumstances. The current bill allows patients to be dropped for “fraud or intentional misrepresentation,” the same pretext insurers commonly use now.

C. Prevent insurers from being able to charge up to four times more based on age, or more for certain conditions. No age-based premiums should be allowed, and the bill should include a direct prohibition on marketing gimmicks that enable insurers to avoid sicker enrollees.

D. Bar the higher charges allowed for employees who fail “wellness” programs because they have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol readings or other chronic conditions.

“The repeated concessions Congress and the White House have made to opponents and obstructionists have gravely weakened the promise of reform,” said Higgins. “Nurses will continue to campaign for more cost effective, comprehensive reform by expanding Medicare to cover everyone, and passing single payer bills in individual states.”

“In the meantime, Congress has one final opportunity to fix some of the worst problems in this legislation. We will be closely monitoring the votes of our legislators on the final bill,” Ross said. “We ask and expect members of the House of Representatives to vote no on any bill providing for an excise tax on health care benefits.”

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2010/january/nation-s-largest-rn-organization-blasts-bid-to-tax-benefits-urges-other-reforms-to-protect-patients-families-in-final-talks-on-healthcare-reform-legislation.html