It is important to point out that the proposed tax on high cost health insurance policies only applies to the amount over the cutoff. This means that if a plan costs $24,500, or $500 more than the new cutoff of $24,000 for a family plan, then the 40 percent tax would be applied to the $500, not the full $24,500. This means that a person would pay $200 in tax on this policy. This fact would probably not be clear to most readers of this Post article.
--Dean Baker
