Comment from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Republican Rhetoric Against Health Care Reform

[Omaha Steve]

November 7, 2009

You’d think Republicans would be embarrassed to rely on shrill,
dishonest rhetoric in the face of one of the most important decisions
this country has to make.

All across the country families are watching anxiously to see if we
will finally do something about the health care costs that are forcing
untenable choices, about the stranglehold of the insurance companies,
about making sure nobody goes without good health care.

With their boasts of not delivering a single Republican vote for the
Affordable Health Care for America Act, Republican leaders are treating
health care like a political football – their only apparent goal is to
keep reform away from the goal line. That is deeply insulting to
American voters.

The Republican “alternative,” according to the nonpartisan
congressional body charged with evaluating bills, accomplishes exactly
nothing – the same percentage of non-elderly Americans would be
insured 10 years from now as today, and the insurance companies would
still rule.

The opportunity to do something about health care has been a long time
coming. This is a moment we cannot afford to miss – or dismiss with
phony rhetoric.

[tabatha]

1. Not only Republicans.

[atomicweeder]

2. Your Health Care Plan Just Got Taxed

If you have a Flexible Spending Account health care plan (and thousands of your private and government employees have them), you just got taxed.

Under current law, if your employer puts $10,000 into an FSA to provide health care insurance, it's tax free.

Under HR 3962, Section 532, only the first $2,500 is tax free. You'll now have to pay Federal, and possibly state and local taxes on the other $7,500.

You keep your doctor! You keep your plan! You pay an extra $2,000 in taxes!