Press Room: Press Releases

Washington, D.C. -- Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, successfully fought and succeeded in having his Excise Tax Amendment (F1 modified) included in the Finance Committee health care reform bill.  The amendment is designed to protect coal miners, first responders and other high-risk workers from an excise tax being proposed on high-cost health insurance plans.  His amendment will now be part of the final Finance Committee bill, which will merge with the Senate HELP Committee bill to produce a final product for full Senate review.

 

 

“Coal miners and first responders require more expensive health coverage due to the dangerous nature of their job,” said Senator Rockefeller. “I will always fight as hard as I can to protect them and their families.  These workers do their job honorably, day-in and day-out, and put their lives on the line – they absolutely should not have to foot the bill for health care reform.”

 

 

Under the original Senate Finance Committee bill, health insurance plans valued above $8,000 for an individual or $21,000 for a family in the year 2013 would be subject to an excise tax.  Through Senator Rockefeller’s advocacy and amendments on the issue during the Committee mark-up, these limits were increased significantly for high-risk workers and retirees to $9,850 for individuals and $26,000 for families.  These higher limits will allow coal miners and other high risk workers to keep and/or obtain the health coverage they need.

 

In addition, West Virginia could stand to benefit from a provision in the Finance bill that increases the excise tax limits by an additional 20% for the top 17 most expensive states. 

 

The additional protections for coal miners were possible because of the savings achieved from Senator Rockefeller’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Restoration Amendment (C21).  While the two amendments are unrelated policy-wise, the revenue raised from Senator Rockefeller’s amendment to protect CHIP coverage for children (C21) funded his amendment to protect health coverage for coal miners (F1).

 

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