Obamacare Tax Threatens to Close West Coast Ports

Obamacare Tax Threatens to Close West Coast Ports:
"The slow-roll implementation of Obamacare threatens to close U.S. commercial ports on the West Coast.
The 29 ports, which handle 70 percent of maritime imports from Asia, were closed over the weekend after months of contentious contract negotiations.
The ports reopened Monday, but 20,000 longshoremen are still threatening to strike over a new Obamacare tax.
Obamacare imposes a 40 percent tax on health benefits deemed too generous by the government. Health benefits exceeding $10,200 a year in value for individuals or $27,500 for families are defined as “Cadillac” plans and are subject to the tax.
Health benefits for longshoremen exceed $40,000 per employee, meaning the union would be served an enormous tax bill when the penalty is imposed in 2018.
The longshoremen’s contract expired in July, 2014 and contract talks have stalled, in large part, over whether workers or employers will pay the new Obamacare tax.
The longshoremen are the first union to negotiate a contract that would extend beyond the time the tax is first imposed.
“This will come up in just about every contract negotiation out there,” J.D. Piro, a health-benefits consultant, told Bloomberg News. 
“Every employer is going to be calculating when and if they hit the threshold and how they’re going to pay for this.”"