So much for the promise not tax middle income class people in any way

Does a broken health care promise count if it hits in a couple of years? Apparently the Dems may not be arguing that. The WSJ has this:

But the proposal being weighed by the Senate Finance Committee would tax health plans that cost much less, setting the bar perhaps as low as $25,000 a year for a family plan. That is about twice the cost of the average family plan and would affect only a tiny fraction of U.S. workers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But if lawmakers don't allow the threshold to be adjusted annually to reflect annual price increases, the proposed tax would eventually hit a much larger number of people.

Health-care costs are likely to climb at several times the rate of inflation between now and 2013, when much of the proposed legislation would go into effect.

Employer benefits consulting firm Towers Perrin calculated that the tax would today affect about 6% of Fortune 1000 companies, based on an analysis of 560 employers whose annual health-care costs the firm tracks. By 2011, though, 18% of those employers would cross the $25,000 threshold, Towers Perrin estimated. "It's startling to see how rapidly that number would go up," said Michael Langan, a principal at Towers Perrin.

The proposed tax would apply to the amount of a health plan that exceeds a certain threshold, which would increase over time based on a cost index or other formula. If the threshold is set at $25,000, for example, and the annual premium of a family plan costs $26,000, $1,000 would be taxed. Though lawmakers haven't released any draft legislation, a tax rate in the range of 20% to 35% is being considered. . . . .