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Is the Baucus health care plan to tax Cadillac plans (ie any plan with Dental or Vision Coverage) at a rate of?

Is the Baucus health care plan to tax Cadillac plans (ie any plan with Dental or Vision Coverage) at a rate of 40%, a penalty on those that are responsible enough that they actually buy insurance on themselves and their families? Also Is this another way to push Companies to accept a Government run health care plan and not provide the so called Cadillac plans? Actually yes it is the definition of the Cadillac plan's. The definition that I have heard is a plan that includes Dental and Vision is considered a cadillac plan. I have also heard that plans that cost over 8000 per year. Just looked up a definition that puts it at 8,000 for individuals and 21,000 for families. The average family coverage is over 13,000. It would not take much to put a family over that and I would say that there are a lot of individuals that pay over 8,000 per year. Ok so we agree that the limit for a Cadillac plan on families is 21,000 dollars. I can tell you this that I am in no way a rich person but if you put an additional 40% tax on these so called Cadillac plans, I can either expect to not get nearly as good insurance in the next few years if this is passed. Am I right? Because the increase in cost is going to be an incentive for the employer to not offer the best insurance plans, is it not? To think that the tax on the Cadillac plans is not going to trickle down to us is naive. We will have to pay more or it will not be offered at all. I pay about 40% of my insurance bill my employer pays the rest. I pay a little over 800 per month, this puts me into the cadillac plan catagory. If this bill passes, I will either be faced with not being able to get nearly as good of coverage for my family or I will have to pay an additional 400 and probably closer to 600 dollars per month to get the same insurance coverage! Because again if you think that the insurance companies are not going to pass that increased cost down to the consumer is very naive So one last time, those of us that are being responsible in the first place will be penalized for caring for ourselves and our families!

Public Comments

1. Just great, that would be another $400 a month out of my pocket.
2. Sorta stupid, isn't it.
3. Is that the definition of "Cadillac plans"? I think not. Basically, it deals with hugely expensive insurance plans, which are held only by the very wealthy. EDIT: Okay --- according to your own figures, your insurance costs $20,000/year. So you just squeek by under the "Cadillac" level. But pretend that your insurance is actually $25,000/year. In that case, the tax would apply only to the difference between your rate and the base rate. So, your insurer would be taxed on $25,000 minus $21,000, or $4000. 40 percent of that is 1600 bucks. So it won't be as painful as you fear. Nevertheless, I'm not thrilled with the Baucus plan, and I agree that there are problems with taxing Cadillac insurance. I'd rather just use income tax.
4. The proposed bill also levies a 35% excise tax on insurers for individual health plans worth more than $8,000 and family plans worth at least $21,000 annually. The bill also includes an aggregate annual fee of $6 billion for all U.S. health insurance providers. This is all I can find about taxing high end insurance plans - and this is an excise tax on INSURERS. Perhaps you could provide a link.
5. Cadillac plans are defined as being of value of over $8000 a year individual or $210000 family a year. This year, the average cost for insuring an individual and family was $4,824 and $13,375, respectively. "But to congressional leaders working on health care reform, the perks are not as important as cost, and legislators have defined Cadillac plans by their price tags. " http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/25/cadillac-coverage-health-lifestyle-health-max-baucus-insurance.html "...That's because the term refers to total cost—not a particular set of benefits—and many factors—like the state you live in, the size of your company, and the makeup of that company's work force—can affect costs. " Do I Have a Cadillace Plan?: If I have a "Cadillac plan," will I have to pay the proposed tax myself? No. The 40 percent tax will be charged directly to the insurer. That is, the insurance company has to pay 40 cents on every dollar spent above the $8,000 or $21,000 cutoff. Some portion of that might be passed on..." http://www.slate.com/id/2232434/
6. yes, it is.