Idling Rhetoric on Cadillac Plans

As President Obama talks to union folks today he isn't bashing those "super gold-plated Cadillac" health plans.

Unions are uneasy about the Democrats' proposal to help pay for health reform by taxing premium insurance plans. A bill being offered by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus aims to raise $180 billion through new taxes. Unions fight hard for these benefits. In many cases, they concede on wages to access better health care plans. And while gold-plated plans are being demonized as driving up health care costs overall, new taxes don't sit well with the rank and file.

"We don't want to pay for reform on the backs of working men and women," says Lori Lodes, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union.

Lodes won't comment specifically on the Baucus bill until it's introduced tomorrow. But the idea isn't sitting well with other unions either.

"Any plan involving taxation of health care reform should not make health care more expensive," Steven Kreisberg, an official with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, told CNN last month. "We think taxing income levels is a better way to go. Another way to do this is to tax capital gains."

Resistance from unions, which are major Democratic backers, could be another stumbling block to pay for health reform. Obama approached reform broadly and carefully as he addressed union workers at a General Motors plant in Warren, Ohio, today. The speech was mostly geared toward the president's economic agenda but he appealed to workers by saying that reform is needed to curb the high cost of health care which has been devastating for the American auto companies.

"We all have an interest in reforming the health care system so that the cost for employers doesn't go up," Obama said. "That means the cost for you doesn't go up, and that means you can actually start bringing home a little more take-home pay. That's what this is all about if you've already got health insurance."