TEXAS AFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 (copyright 2009 Texas AFT)   En Route to Health-Care Reform, Some Bad Senate Finance Ideas Need to be Dropped   This year Congress has a real chance to achieve a historic breakthrough, establishing quality, affordable health care for all Americans. But one of the major health-care bills in Congress--the bill moving through the U.S. Senate Finance Committee--would squander this opportunity. The Senate Finance bill:   --taxes health benefits;   --leaves health insurance unaffordable for millions of uninsured families;   --lets employers shrug off their fair share of the costs of coverage for their employees;   --omits the option of coverage under a public plan that would help keep insurance companies honest; and   --shifts much of the higher cost of care for the poor to the states when they can least afford it.   Fortunately, other congressional committees--three in the U.S. House and one in the Senate--have come up with much better bills that are actually worthy of consideration. Over the next few weeks, we need to make our voices heard to let the Texans in Congress know that the five big flaws in the Senate Finance bill need to be deleted from the final version of health-care reform.  Texas AFT will provide you with multiple ways and means to take part in this effort to educate the politicians, so be on the lookout.   The final shape of this year's health-care bill will be negotiated in a House-Senate conference committee. But even before that happens the Senate leadership can and should rework the legislation that comes out of the committee process and turn it into something worthy of our support. Our national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, proposes the following criteria for the final Senate bill:   --The final Senate health-care reform must not include taxation of benefits. The current version of the Senate Finance bill as of 2013 would impose a 40-percent tax on insurance plans for families and individuals above a certain annual value. For individuals, that threshold would be $8,000. The threshold value would go up over time, but not as fast as likely premium costs.   --The final Senate bill must provide affordable coverage for all Americans. Under the Senate Finance bill, low-income and moderate-income families that lack employer-paid coverage and must buy their own insurance still would have to pay costs that are simply out of reach for many. The Senate needs to provide more help for the uninsured.   --Employers should be required to maintain a high-quality health plan or pay a fee that would be used to help cover the cost of their employees' health-care premiums. The Senate Finance bill does not require employers to provide coverage for employees, or to help employees pay for it if it is offered. And the benefits offered can be below the already-modest level offered to the uninsured. Most large employers would only have to pay $400 per employee when they drop coverage. The final legislation should require all employers to pay their fair share.   --The final Senate bill must include a robust national public plan. Giving consumers the option of a public insurance plan is the best way to hold insurance companies accountable; it would drive down insurance costs by introducing more competition into the marketplace. A new poll out this week shows that 65 percent of Americans support this idea, in spite of being inundated for months with propaganda against it. The good news here is that, though it's been left out of the Senate Finance plan, the choice of a public plan has been built into all four of the other major versions of health-care legislation, including one from the Senate Health committee. The public option must be part of the final Senate health-care bill.   --The final Senate bill should not shift new Medicaid costs to the states. Under the Senate Finance bill, too much of the higher cost of expanding health coverage for the poor would be forced onto the states, which can ill afford it. The House proposes greater aid to the states for expanded indigent care. That's the right way for the Senate to go, too.