Barack Obama will not raise his income taxes.

But if Joe is successful in buying a plumbing business, and if he provides health insurance for his employees – then John McCain will make every single one of those workers pay an expensive new tax on health care.

And if Joe puts himself and his family on his new company’s health care plan, he’ll pay extra taxes too. McCain’s new tax will hit everyone in America who has employer-paid health care. That’s more than 160 million people!

Nicole Lowe, a member of UAW Local 160, is featured in a new UAW TV ad about McCain’s health care tax. Her five-year old son, Trevor, has asthma, and Nicole is worried about how McCain’s plan would affect her family. No wonder – the Center for American Progress estimates the tax will eventually cost her more than $2,800 a year.

Even worse, high taxes on health care will undermine existing insurance plans. As many as 27 million people could lose employer-sponsored health coverage.

If that were to happen to Nicole Lowe, she might not be able to find any health insurance at all for Trevor. Chronic diseases like asthma are considered “pre-existing conditions” by insurance companies, who frequently deny coverage to people who need it the most.

Higher taxes and less health care coverage? Doesn’t sound like a very good deal for Joe the Plumber, Nicole Lowe, or anyone else. A better bet: Barack Obama’s plan to cut taxes on the middle class, preserve employer-based coverage at a lower cost, and offer new options for the uninsured.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized .