Industry groups and GOP leaders are critical of President Obama’s health-care proposal, which was unveiled on Feb. 22. But the White House calls the proposal a “starting point” and says it hopes congressional leaders from both parties will make some progress in kick-starting the stalled negotiations at a Feb. 25 summit.
The proposal seeks to bridge the gap between the legislation passed by the House in November and the Senate on Dec. 24. Its framework is built on the Senate bill but includes several key changes. Among them, it calls for increasing the penalty—to $2,000 from $750 per worker—for employers that do not provide health benefits. It also increases the threshold for excise taxes on so-called Cadillac plans and would delay their enactment until 2018. Construction industry groups say, overall, the President’s proposal does little to address the skyrocketing costs of health-care and takes too punitive an approach toward employers.