Our new piece on the politics and policy of the Senate’s health reform deal is up at The Huffington Post, and it addresses the excise tax at several points:
“if you take that new revenue, add the unfair tax on higher-cost benefit plans (studies demonstrate its unfairness), throw in the pay cut for doctors, and toss the higher individual penalties on top of that, it still doesn’t offset the fiscal recklessness behind killing the public option.”
“The Senate’s new bill won’t just increase the Federal budget. We’ll also pay higher premiums because we lost the public option, and face more out-of-pocket payments because the excise tax stayed in.”
“There’s an easy way for the President and Sen. Reid to disprove the Good Cop/Bad Cop Scenario, of course: They can fight like hell to win concessions in the House/Senate conference, to bring the final bill more in line with the House version. That would mean, at the very least, a public option and no excise tax.”
The entire piece is here.
