Posted by
Defend America on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 7:43:11 PM
EXCLUSIVE -- Three Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee --Charles
E. Schumer (N.Y.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.)
today are announcing an aggressive push to make HEALTH INSURES absorb
AS MUCH AS $100 BILLION of the cost of reform. The idea has been
kicking around quietly in meetings, and insurers are on a list of
potential targets that have been floating around. But Schumer, one of
the senior Democratic voices at the Capitol, is going at them head-on.
A top Senate Democratic aide: “If we really want to have a breakthrough
to make it possible to pass this, we should go after these guys in
terms of defraying the cost of the bill.”
The structure has not been set, but top possibilities include a fee
based on their market share and what the aide calls “a flat percentage
of their profits – basically a windfall-profits tax, like people
propose on the oil industry, for health-care insurance.” Per the aide,
this could raise “close to $100 billion if you did it in a very
aggressive way.”
http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/0709/politicopulse39.html