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IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time or sent to others using government equipment, because it suggests action to be taken in support or against legislation. Government employees should not use their government phone or email address when contacting Members of Congress, but should use their cell phone, home phone, home email, or resources of the union, while assisting in these legislative efforts. Dear AFGE Activist, Federal employees and all working families will benefit from health care reform. Big insurance companies have created a system that costs too much, covers too few and excludes too many. There's a right way to do health care reform – with a public option and a requirement that all employers pay their fair share. And there's a wrong way to do it – which is to tax health care benefits. Right now the House version of the health care reform bill and one of the Senate's proposed bills (drafted by the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee) contain the public option, an employer's "fair share" provision and no taxation on health care benefits. Unfortunately, the Senate Finance Committee's proposed health care bill would levy a 40% tax on health insurance plans that cost more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families. That could hit federal employees particularly hard. The Senate Finance Committee's 40% tax will be imposed directly on insurers, but private insurers aren't going to eat that cost. They will pass it right on to you and me in the form of higher premiums, reduced benefits or both. We can not let that happen. There is a real opportunity this year to pass health care reform the right way and AFGE is helping to lead the fight to make that happen. But we also need to oppose any effort that taxes our health care benefits. In solidarity,
John Gage
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