More Decisions Await Harry Reid
Jeff Young reminds us that besides rounding up 60 votes for cloture on a bill that includes an opt-out public option, Harry Reid still has a lot of decisions to make about the other aspects of health reform:
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Democrat in the upper chamber, said Wednesday that insurance affordability, a controversial excise tax on high-cost insurance plans, whether most employers will be required to offer health benefits, how to raise needed tax dollars and whether to create a federal long-term-care insurance program are the remaining issues.
One potential upside to Olympia Snowe’s apparent decision to drop her support for health reform is that this may allow us to revisit the issue of the Baucus bill’s ill-conceived effort to replace an employer mandate with a “free rider” fee. In an employer mandate, an employer either needs to pay for his employees’ health insurance or else pay a tax which helps the government afford subsidies for people in need. That’s not a great policy in the abstract, but it’s a reasonable approach to dealing with the legacy of our existing institutions and building on what exists. The free rider fee amounts to a special tax on companies that hire poor people or people with families. It has no real advantages over the straight mandate alternative, but apparently Snowe has a strong preference for it.
3 Responses to “More Decisions Await Harry Reid”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
October 29th, 2009 at 11:50 am
More decisions on how to make a net- negative bill even shittier.
Really, the only reason anyone can honestly have for favoring passage of this healthcare bill is so that Democrats can say ‘look, we passed something!’ There are no honest arguments for this bill. They all rely on claiming that it does things it doesn’t actually do (a favorite trick of so-called moderates) and procedural lies.
It will be greatly satisfying to watch them lose after this. They certainly do deserve to, given the fact that they turned out to be every bit as corrupt as the Republicans ever were.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Fuck Olympia Snowe.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Matt, who has consistently favored reform that would reduce the impediments to firms for hiring new workers and retaining existing workers, now supports an employer mandate, saying “[t]hat’s not a great policy in the abstract, but it’s a reasonable approach to dealing with the legacy of our existing institutions and building on what exists.” I am approaching agreement with those who are critical of the various efforts to achieve (near) universal coverage as not well thought through. Universal coverage is a fine and well-intentioned goal, but getting there takes a more reasoned approach than an employer mandate. Matt, you need to reconsider.