New AFL Ad Buy Warns: Don't Tax Health Care Benefits

Next week, and the week after, AFL-CIO will blanket the airwaves--both inside the beltway and in key health care swing states--with an ad emphasizing the importance of passing health care reform, but warning members not to finance legislation with a tax on high-cost health insurance plans.

The ad is timed to run during the most crucial period of the health care debate in the Senate, as wavering members are determining how to vote on key amendments, and, indeed the final package.

At stake is whether the Senate bill will raise revenue by imposing on insurance companies an excise tax on "Cadillac" policies. The incidence of the tax, however, could fall to workers with less generous insurance plans, and, as such, unions have always opposed the measure. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lowered the threshold of the tax when he merged two different versions of health care reform, but AFL want's to see it deep sixed.