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Tell President Obama: Stop the Health Care Tax!
Last year, then candidate Obama campaigned on the promise of health care reform, without a punishing tax on the workers who make up the American middle class. He even attack Senator John McCain for proposing that same tax during his failed run for the presidency.
Today, the idea of a new health care tax on worker benefits is now under consideration.
Union members have worked hard to expand health care coverage to millions of American families. The last thing we need is to be taxed on our benefits.
A new health benefits tax would increase the cost of health care and lead many employers to stop providing health benefits altogether.
Please join SMWIA members from across the country in contacting President Obama and in urging him to stand firm and hold to his promise in opposition to this legislation.
We will keep you informed of our efforts to stop this tax. In the meantime, you can read a copy of the letter sent to members of the US Senate by the SMWIA General President Sullivan and SMACNA along with another letter that was signed by the SMWIA and 30 other labor organizations from the AFL-CIO and Change to Win as well as another from the SMWIA and our partners in the Building and Construction Trades.
Far from moving us in the direction of comprehensive health care reform, a tax on our hard earned health benefits would only make the problem worse.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: No Health Care Tax On Working Families!
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
This letter was most difficult to prepare as one of your supporters who believed the war against unions would see an end under your administration. That, obviously, is not the case in the reversal of your position on not taxing health care benefits. If your promise had merit then, why are you now supporting the current proposal being considered by the Senate Finance Committee to tax the health care benefits of employer-sponsored health insurance? The Barack Obama I voted for, as did millions of union members, would not back on a promise.
I urge you to state your opposition in the strongest way to legislation which would tax workers' health care benefits. Working people, such as the members of the Sheet Metal Workers? International Association, already pay as much as a third of their health care premiums to cover the uninsured and underinsured that need medical attention. We, in effect, are a vital funding source for the nation?s health care system. Experts say there are other ways to finance health care reform. They also state that taxing benefits would make things worse by forcing employers to scale back and limit their health care coverage at a time when our health care system and the middle class are in a state of crisis.
Last year, you unequivocally stated your opposition to Sen. McCain's scheme to tax health care benefits. I strongly supported you for that position and I urge you to continue your firm opposition to any plan to tax benefits before it gets lock into legislation.
We can have health care reform that provides affordable coverage for all without putting the burden on the backs of working people who already suffer from high health care coverage costs. Passing a middle class health benefits tax on 160 million Americans will spell disaster not only for working people, but also for every Democrat who promised to pass real health care reform without punishing an already overburdened middle class.
Thank you for your attention to this matter of extreme importance to me and millions of middle class Americans everywhere.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
June 30, 2009
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In his failed run for the presidency, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed taxing working families’ health care benefits as part of his deeply flawed plan for health care reform.
The reaction was intense. Unions, health care reform advocates and consumers resoundingly rejected the idea. Even Democratic candidate Barack Obama blasted the McCain proposal and spent millions of dollars running ads attacking him on this issue.
But today, the idea of taxing health care benefits has resurfaced. The call to tax your health care benefits is buried in legislation now being considered by the Senate Finance Committee as one of several possible ways to finance comprehensive health care reform. It has been insisted upon by members of the Republican minority and is being championed by Democratic Senators such as Max Baucus from Montana, all in a quest to achieve supposed “bipartisanship” on health care reform.
This tax may bring smiles to GOP Senators who believe they will be guaranteed a return to their 1994 ascendency if it gets passed, but it will spell significant financial hardship for hard working American men and women who cannot afford such a tax.
After suffering under 8 years of economic mismanagement, this is an additional hardship that union members cannot afford nor will accept. Already, 30 percent of members' healthcare premiums compensate the uninsured and the underinsured. A tax on healthcare benefits is estimated to cost our members thousands of dollars more a year.
Health care reform is urgently needed in America. However, it cannot work if it is built on the backs of union members who sacrificed to ensure their families would not go without coverage. We have given thousands in concessions to maintain our health care coverage and have served as the backbone of the drive for health care reform.
Working people did not vote for a tax on their benefits. 85 percent of the American public oppose this tax. With 160 million Americans currently with employer-sponsored health care, passing this tax will signal disaster for any politician or political party that advances this tax.
Please take a moment to contact the President and remind him of his promise to oppose a tax on our health care benefits.
Letter from General President Sullivan and SMACNA to members of the U.S. Senate.
Letter signed by General President Sullivan and 30 other unions to the U.S. Senate.
Letter from the Unions of the Building and Construction Trades to the US Senate.
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