Can you keep up with all the hustle and bustle in the legislatives lately? Let’s have a recap. Former President Bill Clinton paid a quick visit to Capitol Hill. There he attempted to persuade Senate Democrats to pass health care reform by the end of the year. Senate Leadership, on the other hand, continues to work finalizing its merged bill and Majority Leader Harry Reid commenced the legislation on the Senate floor.

The Senate’s health care reform legislation has not yet been disclosed to the public, but there are information coming from the Congressional Budget Office that the bill is likely to be more costly than expected. For that reason, Senate Democrats are now considering other means to pay for the bill.

One of the selections is an increase to the Medicare share of the payroll tax on individuals making $250,000 or more per annum. At present, workers and employers each pay a 1.45 percent payroll tax for Medicare and the new proposal would increase that to 2.5 percent payroll tax bracket.

By embracing this new tactic, it would allow the Senate to either reduce or eliminate the controversial excise tax on “Cadillac” or high-cost insurance plans, passed in the Senate Finance Committee’s bill last month. Under legislation (S 1796) approved by the Senate Finance Committee, individual insurance plans costing more than $8,000 and family plans costing more than $21,000 would face a 40 percent excise tax on any amount above that level.