House Passes Bill Requiring Group Health Disclosures

Group health plans would be required to disclose all limitations and restrictions that could impact coverage for injuries sustained riding motorcycles, horses, or snowmobiles, or any other legal activity, under legislation passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. House.

The House measure, hurriedly drawn up on the orders of Democratic leadership, imposes a 90 percent tax on those who were paid bonuses at AIG and other firms as long as their families earned more than $250,000 annually and their companies received more than $5 billion in federal bailout funds. It passed by more than a two-thirds majority, 328 to 93.

All but one of the representatives from Maryland voted in favor of the measure. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Frederick, the state's lone Republican, voted against it.

The Senate is taking a different approach. It is readying a bill that would levy a 35 percent excise tax on executive bonuses. Both the company and the recipient of the bonuses would pay the tax. The Senate could take up the measure next week, or perhaps attempt to reconcile it with the House tax bill.