One Step Closer to Health Reform

The latest news on the road to health care reform comes to us today from Newsweek entitled, “Democrats Closer to Health Bill With Tax Issue Solved”. This article discusses how the Obama administration just reached a deal with worker unions over a tax dispute that was set to stop the legislation dead in its tracks.

The deal involved a threshold on which individuals and families would have their employer-based health insurance plans taxed. The unions believed that the threshold was too low apparently. Thankfully, it’s been raised to $8,500 for individuals or $23,000 for families. There are also higher thresholds for people 55 or older, and people who work in high-risk professions such as firefighting.

Now that that hurdle has been cleared, lawmakers can focus on the next big hurdles. The biggest of these hurdles, according to the article, is how to pay for everything. While several groups, including drugmakers and hospital groups, have proposed billions of dollars to help the proposed trillion (yes, trillion with a T) dollar program, but now lawmakers are planning to ask for more.

It’s good to see the health care reform legislation moving forward, despite so many speedbumps, but this is only one of many. Figuring out how to pay for it, who gets coverage, and so many more questions will be raised in the months to come, and it will take a lot of work to get it all settled.