Senior adviser: White House willing to scale back 'Cadillac' tax

The Hill reports:

The Obama administration is agreeing to scale back its unpopular “Cadillac” tax on high-cost health insurance plans as part of its years-long fight to keep the tax in place.

Jason Furman, chief economic adviser for President Obama, said Wednesday that the administration would propose raising the threshold for the tax in areas where healthcare is more costly.

In states where the average premium for “gold” coverage exceeds the Cadillac-tax threshold under ObamaCare, that threshold would instead be raised to the average gold premium, Furman wrote in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“This policy prevents the tax from creating unintended burdens for firms located in areas where health care is particularly expensive, while ensuring that the policy remains targeted at overly generous plans over the long term if health costs rise faster than the tax thresholds,” Furman said.

The Cadillac tax is one of the most controversial pieces of ObamaCare – with opponents that include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Second thoughts about ObamaCare's details.