If the concessions exacted by Republicans and “centrist” Democrats as the price of passing health care finance reform include taxing very-high-end employer-provided health care plans, I may have to rethink my basic belief that “Congress” is the opposite of “progress.” I’m not sure why a cost-control measure that is also a progressive tax should count as a bow toward the right, but if that’s what those folks want they’re more than welcome to it.
On the other hand, I also can’t see why it’s “centrist” to insist that families whose incomes are near the median should be hit with a mandate to buy insurance but not given any subsidy to make that mandate affordable. I also can’t see why it’s good politics. Here’s hoping that Obama, Waxman, Pelosi, and Kennedy hold out for 400% of poverty as the upper bound for subsidies.
