Working Together: Don’t Tax Our Health Care, All Employers Should ‘Pay or Play’ Act now, we wo

Annie Hill, Executive Vice President

The action is heating up on health care reform and it's really now or never if CWA activists are going to make a difference. CWA is fighting back hard against some disastrous proposals in the Senate. One would tax employers on the value of the health care. No question, that tax would be shifted to workers as employers cut benefits, increase workers' health care costs and more. Another bad idea: a Senate proposal that would drop a requirement that all employers provide health care for employees. This isn't health care reform. In fact it would make health care much worse, not better, because it would allow those freeloading employers to continue to get a free ride on health care. Meanwhile, employers that provide quality benefits are at a big disadvantage. 

CWA's Executive Board has put together a union-wide campaign to make sure Congress gets health care right. Here's what we'll do:

• Step up action by CWAers. CWA activists must work even harder to get our message to members of Congress through meetings, personal letters and other communications. More than 100 CWA activists will be dedicated to coordinating leafleting at worksites, collecting letters for senators and making sure our voice is heard at political meetings.
  
  
• Continue to meet with the key members of Congress who will be reconciling the differences in health care reform proposals. 
  
  
• And CWA is calling on CWA employers to get by our sides and join us in the fight to defeat efforts to tax health care plans.

The proposed 35 percent tax on health care plans is seriously bad for all of us. It would be imposed on insurance companies or employers that provide their own health care plans. There's no question that employers' immediate reaction will be to cut workers' benefits. 

You don't have to take my word for it. Employers have already said that's exactly what they will do. An August 2009 survey by Tower Perrin found that 87 percent of executives will cut benefits if health reform raises their costs.

At every wage level, CWA families will get hit with this tax.

CWA's Research Department has the numbers. Over 10 years, a typical CWA employer will have to pay $19,000 in taxes for each employee with family coverage and $8,000 for those with individual coverage. The impact is much worse for retiree coverage which will see taxes of $35,000 for family plan and $24,000 for individual coverage.

Taxing our health care is a disaster and we need every member to send that message to their members of Congress. Real reform needs to take health care off the bargaining table, not make contract negotiations even more difficult. 

We're hearing about an individual mandate — a requirement that everyone have health insurance. What's needed is an employer mandate — a requirement that all employers "pay or play," either provide health care for workers or contribute to a fund that will provide for those benefits.

The Chamber of Commerce is fighting hard to stop the employer mandate while the private insurance companies are pushing the individual mandate.

That means it's up to us to get real health care reform that helps us, our families and our communities.

It all comes down to what we do now to get real heath care reform. So act now. Write a letter, make a phone call or schedule and appointment with your senators and make your voice heard. Do it now, because we won't have a second chance to get this right.

How close are we to real health care reform?

In the House: CWA is supporting H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act, as the best plan out there to meet the priorities reform must have: an employer mandate, no taxation of health care, protections for retirees and a public plan option.  H.R. 3200 will likely come up for a full vote in October.

In the Senate: The work of two Senates committees must be combined into a final bill. The Senate HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) has some good elements and includes a public plan option but needs more work on employer mandates and other CWA priorities.  

The Senate Finance Committee bill, the Baucus bill, is a total disaster and CWA and allies are fighting hard to kill this very bad proposal.

When both the House and Senate have voted on bills, the two will be reconciled by a joint committee.