Compromise Appears Near on Health Benefits for Trade-Displaced Workers

A compromise between Senate Democrats and Republicans on providing health benefits to American workers displaced by international trade is "close to being worked out," CongressDaily/AM reports (Norton, CongressDaily/AM, 4/23). As part of a bill authorizing presidential trade negotiating authority, the Senate Finance Committee in February approved a provision that would offer trade-displaced workers a 75% subsidy to purchase health insurance through COBRA -- the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which allows unemployed workers to keep their employer-sponsored health coverage by paying 102% of the premiums. President Bush's trade proposal and the version of the trade bill passed in the House last December do not contain any health insurance provisions. However, some Republicans have suggested that they would support a tax credit that would cover up to 60% of the cost of trade-displaced workers' health insurance (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 4/17). In the past week, Finance Committee chair Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking minority member Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have "intensified discussion" on how to provide a health benefit for trade-displaced workers, CongressDaily/AM reports. Under one possible plan, some workers would receive an undetermined amount of money to obtain health insurance through COBRA, while other workers would be eligible for a tax credit. Workers receiving a tax credit would have to choose a health insurer through the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program as opposed to the open market. Congressional aides said negotiations to provide health benefits to "secondary" trade-displaced workers -- those who lose their jobs because they provide services for American industries affected by international trade -- are still "fluid." During an April 22 speech to a meeting sponsored by the Electronics Industry Alliance, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) said, "I think we have a proposal that would mean something to both sides" (CongressDaily/AM, 4/23).