Stop the Tax on Health Care! Join the Fight Now!

CWAers are making sure that our senators get the message: Don't tax our health care.

The bill produced so far by the Senate Finance Committee is a disaster for working families and retirees.

Here's the worst of it: a 40 percent tax on employer health plans that cost $8,000 or more for individual plans and $21,000 or more for family coverage. This bad idea will hit active and retired CWAers hard. It also will hurt workers and families in rural communities, where a single private insurance company has just about cornered the market, and workers in high-risk occupations. It's bad public policy. 

CWA's research department figured out exactly what this means: Over 10 years, on average, the tax would cost $21,400 per worker with family coverage, $8,500 per worker with single coverage and $23,800 for a pre-Medicare retiree.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that companies are not going to pay this tax, they're going to cut benefits. This will make our country's health care crisis worse, not better.

CWA and the labor movement are fighting back and everyone needs to stand up for what's right. Here's what you can do right now:

Call your senators. Give your name, city and state. Tell him or her that we need health care reform, but taxing health care is the wrong way to go. What's better: all employers should provide health care and the wealthy, individuals who earn more than $280,000 and families earning $350,000, should pay their fair share too.

More on the campaign at www.healthcarevoices.org.