While Democrats and Republicans continue to argue on the future of health care in this country, private insurers who are worried about going bankrupt if the country nationalized health care. Check out the following article from USA Today.com discussing how a U.S. health care company is planning to run commercials attacking the idea of taxing health care.
Much of the TV advertising on health care so far has focused on the controversial public, or government-run insurance program that Democrats say would compete with private insurers and Republicans say would drive them out of business. One labor union will begin airing ads in two states Tuesday that deal with an equally explosive issue: Taxing health benefits.
The Laborers' International Union of North America will run the ads at least through Thursday in North Dakota and Montana, according to spokesman Jacob Hay. In a demonstration of the fine line labor is walking on this issue, the ads first praise Congress for taking up the health care debate but then criticize an idea that could be included in one draft of the legislation to tax health care premiums.
"Finally, Congress is working to fix health care," the ad's narrator says as upbeat music plays in the background. Then, the tone of the music shifts to the ominous: "But the U.S. Senate is working on a plan that could cost middle class Americans more money. This plan would tax your health insurance benefits. So working families would pay even higher taxes than they do now."
Labor unions have been among the biggest supporters of revamping the health care system, but they have also opposed the tax provision -- an idea President Obama also opposed during last year's campaign. Since then, White House officials continue to leave the door open to some form of a tax on health benefits. They did so again over the weekend, the Associated Press reports.
The ads are running in the home states of the two most important senators on the issue, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. Both men have said they are open to the idea of taxing at least a portion of health benefits -- possibly by taxing only those with the most expensive insurance plans. Specifics have not yet been released.