After the jump. I'd note the section detailing this exchange between Ron Wyden and Jimmy Hoffa:
Wyden wanted to talk about his plan to start taxing health benefits.“In the first year, if you take away some of the tax breaks for affluent folks who have health plans where they can get a designer smiles, you could use that money immediately to start expanding coverage.”That was rejected by a number of participants, including Shalala, Kirsch and Hoffa.Hoffa: “This idea of taxing benefits. That was the McCain idea. That was shot down during the election. … That's insane. That discourages what's working.”
A lot of unions with good health benefits don't want to see those hard-fought gains exposed to taxation. As of now, I haven't met a single person, either inside or outside the administration, who thinks we're going to pay for thise without at least capping the employer health care deduction. But it will be a fight, and some of the most aggressive opposition will come from old-line unions.Similarly, this cautionary note from Jay Rockefeller is sage:
Rockefeller warned about excessive happy talk. “I want to issue a warning …There's all this talk of, ‘It's all going to work, we've finally reached it, with the president behind it, people want it. And I go back to the Clinton bill. Every single poll they took showed 72% of Americans said they'd be willing to pay two dollars more for universal healthcare. They didn't mean it. They didn't mean it. they didn't want to do it. … There are a lot of people who have an interest, and let this be said bluntly, in keeping costs high, in making sure that medical companies make money. That leads me directly to the rudest thing I am going to say, which is the power of lobbyists.”
This should be said clearly: There is no obvious indicator that looks better today than it did in 1994. The same people were around the table. The same unlikely bedfellows were making cooperative noises (that sounded more obscene than I'd meant it to). The same polls showed public support for reform and the same pundits predicted wild success. Past, of course, is prologue, not prediction. The greatest advantage of the Obama administration is that they've learned the lessons of 1994. But early confidence is not a new phenomena in health reform.Full pool reports after the jump.
