puppetmaker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
puppetmaker) wrote2007-01-24 10:08 am
puppetmaker) wrote2007-01-24 10:08 am
A Rare Political Entry
I tend to keep any of my thoughts on politics off of this web log for various reasons but today is going to be an exception.
If you don't want to deal with me and my personals political views, I suggest that this is not an entry for you to read.
Fair warning.
OK when did health care become part of taxable income? Or even thought of as another thing from our paycheck that gets taxed? Considering what we have to pay in for Social Security (which I know won't be there when I come of age) and local and federal taxes, adding on another tax seems absurd. Should I just hand all but $20.00 of my paycheck over? That is the way it seems to be going.
Bush wants to penalize people for having a company that provides them with good health insurance. He is using smoke and mirrors to make it sound like a good idea. Also he wants to make the health insurance burden (paying for it) on each individual worker to pay for out of pocket rather than health insurance through companies. This would give the companies much more power to tell people with problems to go somewhere else since you would no longer have anyone at your back to help you.
He wants to tax any monies over 15,000 (for a family 7,500 for an individual) paid for health insurance. I can tell you for a fact that I have paid well over 7,500 in a year for private health insurance and over 15,000 a year for the family and a COBRA deal (which is only good for 18 months kids). So by his plan I would be taxed on money that I have already paid to the insurance company.
It boils down to in this day and age that health insurance is NOT a luxury but a necessity to keep on living. The uninsured find themselves in debt up to their eyeballs if something goes south health-wise and the insured can even find themselves filing for bankruptcy because they have used up all the monies allowed by their health insurance.
The insurance companies only want to insure healthy people because it doesn't cost them much to do so. Once you are sick or have a condition that might need further medical attention, they want nothing more to do with you and will figure out any way to not pay you for the care you received. And G-d help you if you are pregnant or have kids. Kids cost a lot of money to raise so they are healthy.
Now Bush is trying to give big companies a way out of paying for health insurance. Again the way he is doing it is very sneaky but it is there.
And medical savings accounts are not the way to go. It just mathematically doesn't work. Especially since you lose the money you put in the next year if you don't use it. Also once they are depleted that's it. You have no recourse to find funds for the medical help you need to stay alive.
This is not healthcare reform but "let's see how we can screw the middle class this week so they can join the poor and get it over with" and it is so wrong.
I am writing my congressmen and Senators with my concerns. I strongly suggest you do the same before we all see another line of money being taken out of our paychecks.
I am grateful that we have health insurance with pretty good coverage.
If you don't want to deal with me and my personals political views, I suggest that this is not an entry for you to read.
Fair warning.
OK when did health care become part of taxable income? Or even thought of as another thing from our paycheck that gets taxed? Considering what we have to pay in for Social Security (which I know won't be there when I come of age) and local and federal taxes, adding on another tax seems absurd. Should I just hand all but $20.00 of my paycheck over? That is the way it seems to be going.
Bush wants to penalize people for having a company that provides them with good health insurance. He is using smoke and mirrors to make it sound like a good idea. Also he wants to make the health insurance burden (paying for it) on each individual worker to pay for out of pocket rather than health insurance through companies. This would give the companies much more power to tell people with problems to go somewhere else since you would no longer have anyone at your back to help you.
He wants to tax any monies over 15,000 (for a family 7,500 for an individual) paid for health insurance. I can tell you for a fact that I have paid well over 7,500 in a year for private health insurance and over 15,000 a year for the family and a COBRA deal (which is only good for 18 months kids). So by his plan I would be taxed on money that I have already paid to the insurance company.
It boils down to in this day and age that health insurance is NOT a luxury but a necessity to keep on living. The uninsured find themselves in debt up to their eyeballs if something goes south health-wise and the insured can even find themselves filing for bankruptcy because they have used up all the monies allowed by their health insurance.
The insurance companies only want to insure healthy people because it doesn't cost them much to do so. Once you are sick or have a condition that might need further medical attention, they want nothing more to do with you and will figure out any way to not pay you for the care you received. And G-d help you if you are pregnant or have kids. Kids cost a lot of money to raise so they are healthy.
Now Bush is trying to give big companies a way out of paying for health insurance. Again the way he is doing it is very sneaky but it is there.
And medical savings accounts are not the way to go. It just mathematically doesn't work. Especially since you lose the money you put in the next year if you don't use it. Also once they are depleted that's it. You have no recourse to find funds for the medical help you need to stay alive.
This is not healthcare reform but "let's see how we can screw the middle class this week so they can join the poor and get it over with" and it is so wrong.
I am writing my congressmen and Senators with my concerns. I strongly suggest you do the same before we all see another line of money being taken out of our paychecks.
I am grateful that we have health insurance with pretty good coverage.
Self Employment and this issue
Re: Self Employment and this issue
See that just doesn't work for me and seems highly unfair for you.
The way the system of health care is in America, you can't afford not to have health insurance which makes it a necessity not a luxtury like El Presidenta seems to think it is. Of course he doesn't have to pay ANYTHING for healthcare since he is a government employee. He also doesn't have to pay Social Security either.
Re: Self Employment and this issue
Re: Self Employment and this issue
My husband is a business unto himself since he is a writer. Has his own company and an accountant that tries to keep the books in order but it still is such a pain each "quarter" to come up with the moola that the government insists they need.
Small Business is getting screwed on both ends right now?
no subject
I think that's exactly it.
Companies are complaining about rising health care costs. This gives them cover to eliminate employee-provided insurance because they can argue that the employees can get the same (or better) tax break on health insurance that get currently by having health insurance premiums taken out before taxes if they buy individual insurance from the insurance companies.
At the same time, the Republican argument on the unaffordability of health care has been that employer-based health plans are the problem because employees are being covered for things that drive up the cost of healthcare. If people had to pay for their own insurance, they would make different decisions, see the doctor less, etc., all of which would drive down the cost of healthcare. In other words, health care costs a lot now because it's in demand because insurance insulates the consumer from the true costs of healthcare. If you make it more expensive for the consumer, demand will go down, which means health care will have to become less expensive. I'm sorry, but this is voodoo economics all over again, only now we're dealing with people's lives.
The problem with taking a tax deduction at the end of the year for insurance premiums is that it doesn't actually make health insurance more affordable ever. Getting a tax refund because you bought health insurance doesn't help you make your insurance payments on a monthly or weekly basis. Rather, for people who already can't afford insurance they'll find that in the here-and-now they still can't afford health insurance. And if businesses drop their health plans to put their employees on the open market, there's no guarantee that these employees will be able to afford to purchase health insurance.
And plans like California's and Massachusetts' won't work, either--mandating that all citizens of the state must buy health insurance the way that all drivers must buy car insurance doesn't work if health insurance is still unaffordable.
The way the President explained his plan doesn't make much sense, but that wasn't the point. It was to show people that he has the health care crisis on his mind, so that he can look like he's getting out in front of the curve. But like any of the President's domestic policies these past six years, it's a bad plan, and no amount of spin will make it any better.
no subject
Yep to all of the above.
I have had friends in California try to explain how the healthcare system works and I can tell you that copious amounts of alcohol don't help it seem any saner.
no subject
We've been very lucky with our medical issues. DH had one emergency that required 8 days of hospitilization, two of them in Intermediate Care, but because we're on a limited income and paying cash up front, all parties billed on a sliding rate. We budget for checkups, dental visits, prescriptions, and necessary yearly tests. The practicioners we see all charge on a sliding scale for cash up front, because they don't have to file insurance forms and wait for payment. They prescribe generics and OTC equivalents when they can, to help us keep our costs low.
As we age, our health issues are going to get worse. But we can NOT afford insurance. And when we get to the point where we can't afford to pay out of pocket for medical care, I guess we'll just have to die, since the Medicare and Medicaid we've been paying into all our working lives, along with Social Security, are being stripped of their effectiveness.
no subject
I have been paying into the system since I was 15 years old and I know in my heart of hearts I am going to see bupkiss on the other side.