WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a plan for higher taxes on upper-income earners to help finance health-care legislation he intends to introduce in the next several days, Democratic officials said yesterday.
The sources said one of the options would raise the tax that goes to Medicare, but only on income above $250,000 a year. Current law sets the tax at 1.45 percent of income, an amount matched by employers.
It was not known how large an increase Reid (D-Nev.) was considering, or whether it would also apply to a company’s portion of the tax. President Obama has said he will not raise taxes on wage earners making less than $250,000.
The House passed its version of the legislation late last week on a near party-line vote of 220-215, a victory for Obama, as well as his allies in Congress.
In general, the House-passed measure and the one Reid is expected to propose are designed to expand coverage to tens of millions of uninsured, eliminate insurance-industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and slow the overall rate of growth in health-care spending nationally.