I'm not brilliant about economic matters (to say the least), but I've have a gut-level worry for some time about the proposed excise tax on strong health benefit programs.
When you count the total premium contributions by both employee and employer, I think more people may to be affected by such a provision than might appear at first glance -- including many federal employees and retirees, who have some of the better benefit plans going.
I could not understand why a strong health benefit should be the subject of a "health sin tax" like liquor, tobacco and tanning beds (that one's kind of weird, too, but I can accept that tanning beds aren't healthy). Plus, it seemed to me that taxing strong plans, by raising their cost further, would drive some employers with good plans toward junkier insurance. GResham's law of health insurance.
It turns out that there is at least one actuary who actually knows how to analyze these things and has some of the same reservations.
My quick email to my rep:
I understand that the proposed excise tax is still up in the air. Pardon my writing you twice [I did so a few days ago] on my conern about what this may do to people like me, a federal retiree on a modest pension.
But I just learned something new that may be helpful. There is an actuarial analysis that backs up what were originally only gut feelings on my part. Link can be found on this page: http://www.ourfuture.org/...
Summary:
Robert H. Dobson writes that "whether someone hits the benefit ceiling is not so much driven by benefit richness as it is by age, gender, profession, health status, and the geography of the covered plan"...it will affect more middle-class earners with every passing year...there are minimum benefit requirements in the Senate bill, as well, which could leave health plans squeezed between the "floor" imposed by these requirements and the "ceiling" created by the tax.
From talking to others, I don't think federal employees and retirees generally yet realize the possible impact on them, and I ask you to please do what you can to stave off what I think may hurt a great many of your constituents as well as others.
A happy and healthy holiday season to you and your family, Jim, and many thanks for all you do.
I'm hardly qualified to judge the technical paper, but thought maybe others on DKos would care to check it out as well.