Taxing worker health benefits considered

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By Jennifer Haberkorn and Sean Lengell

The Senate's top tax writer said Tuesday that taxing employer-provided health benefits is a possibility as lawmakers search for ways to pay for overhauling the nation's health care system and to insure 50 million Americans who lack coverage - a stance that riles both business and union leaders and is at odds with some leading Democrats.

At the last in a series of public forums on health care reform, Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said scaling back the tax-free status of employer-provided health care benefits must be considered.

"There are ways to enact health care reform that can bend the cost curve in a very significant way that provides health insurance reform, which this country desperately needs, and also covers all Americans," Mr. Baucus said before a panel of senators, health care and tax specialists, and others representing outside groups in the health-care-reform debate.

Business and labor groups said they won't go along with the idea thrown on the table.

It's "a step in the wrong direction," said Gerald Shea of the AFL-CIO labor federation, who was a participant in the panel discussion.

"We cannot ask people who traded wages for health benefits to pay more for their coverage without undertaking a serious effort to lower costs," said Mr. Shea, who serves as the AFL-CIO's health care policy specialist.

Many business groups say the employer-based model is the best way to go in health care reform.

"People have expressed that those who have health care coverage they like should be able to keep it and they should be able to keep their choice of doctor if they like their doctor," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, which supports "building on what is working."

The idea of employer-based health care has splintered the debate over health care reform. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama supported preserving the employer-based model and ridiculed his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, for calling to tax employer-based health care, and the White House said his stance hasn't changed.

As president, Mr. Obama has already called for taxing wealthier Americans to help fund an overhaul that could cost more than $1.5 trillion.