CWAers Tell Electeds To “Have a Heart,” Don’t Tax Health Benefits To Give Billionaires Tax Cuts

CWAers turned out across the country to take action against a plan that would tax our hard-earned health benefits and raise healthcare costs for working families. In a Valentine’s Day action, CWA activists visited dozens of congressional district offices to demand that our representatives pledge to stop a health benefit tax that would force cuts across all our health plans, making healthcare less affordable.

Project 2025, the House Republican Study Committee, and conservative think tanks are calling for increased taxes on our health benefits in order to provide the wealthy and corporations with tax cuts.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the vast majority of employers are expected to shift costs to their workers by increasing deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and maximum out-of-pocket limits. Preliminary research estimates show that health benefit tax proposals currently under discussion could cost CWA members as much as $4,800 per year.

A previous version of this tax was signed into law in 2010, but thanks to the work of CWA activists, it was repealed before ever going into effect. During that time, employers used the threat of the tax to demand preemptive plan cuts and other givebacks at the bargaining table.

“I’m a single father with a child—I can’t afford for my medical to go up any more than it already has,” said CWA Local 9510 member Brian Bell during a visit to the offices of Rep. Young Kim. “With the tax breaks that are going to be given to corporations and billionaires, the burden is going to be deferred to us as the working class. So we’re out here to stop it.”

Watch CWAers speak out to protect our healthcare.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.