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Political consultant Dick Morris has been credited with turning around Bill Clinton's campaign, leading to his second term as President. In ...
Read more about Dick Morris.
Political consultant Dick Morris has been credited with turning around Bill Clinton's campaign, leading to his second term as President. In ...
Read more about Dick Morris.
Obamacare: Taxes for Everyone
Dick Morris
Now that the various health care plans are being reduced to print, the
financial details are emerging and with them a fundamental conclusion
is becoming evident: The Obama plan is a giant tax increase for much
of the American people (not just the rich).
Start with the mandate that falls on those whose welfare is the supposed object of the entire program -- the uninsured. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the average uninsured person or family will have to pay between 15 percent and 20 percent of his total income on health insurance (counting premiums, deductibles and co-payments) before any of the subsidy in the Baucus bill kicks in. Even in the more generous House bill, the tab that the uninsured must pay is very, very high.
Most uninsured would likely be quite happy to avoid paying this much of their income for health insurance. But they will be forced to shell out the money under the program. Others would want catastrophic coverage (which for the young would likely not be too costly), but the Obama program requires comprehensive insurance that is costly to satisfy the government requirement.
Having spent the entire campaign and much of the last year speaking about "affordable" coverage, it turns out the program is not at all affordable, but a massive new tax on the average uninsured American.
Then there is the tax on health insurance premiums that is to finance about a quarter of the subsidy for the uninsured. This tax, billed as only to be levied on "gold plated" policies, will, in fact, reach down to the average American. The Baucus bill specifies that the tax of 35 percent would be put on all premiums over $8,000 for an individual and on proportionately higher premiums for families. Current estimates are that about one-tenth of the current health insurance policies would be taxable.
But the $8,000 premium level that will trigger coverage is not indexed for inflation, let alone for medical inflation, which typically runs twice as high. Obamacare will take effect in 2013. By then, the percentage of Americans subject to the tax will doubtless expand dramatically.
Indeed, this trigger is a new "Alternative Minimum Tax" waiting to happen. As inflation pushes more and more Americans into tax eligibility, it will become a universal health insurance excise tax of 35 percent. While the tax will be imposed on health insurers and employers, it will, obviously, be passed along to the policyholders.
So, if you are insured, you will increasingly have to pay 35 percent more for the privilege. And, if you are uninsured, you will have to pay one-fifth of your income in premiums, deductibles and co-payments before any subsidy kicks in.
And then there is the final piece of the puzzle -- the $500 billion cut in Medicare that will pay for the bulk of the subsidy under the bill. We are literally slicing services to the elderly in order to transfer health care to others.
Obama's claim that only "waste and inefficiency" in Medicare will be cut is, at best, disingenuous. Most of the cuts will be in reimbursement for doctors and hospitals. That will lead to less care, shorter office visits, fewer tests, fewer surgeries and less care. And it will also lead to fewer doctors.
As a result, a survey by the Investors Business Daily, indicates that 45 percent of all doctors would "consider retiring or closing their practices" if the Obama bill passes. The result will be a greater scarcity of medical services, even as the patient load expands by at least 30 million people.
Each of these fiscal pieces is moveable. The left will pressure Obama to increase the subsidy to the uninsured. But that will necessitate raising the Medicare cut borne by the elderly or increasing the tax on health insurance policies ... or adding to the deficit. Any of these options will alienate moderate senators.
Balancing these competing priorities only works if the taxpayers don't know what is going on. If the average middle income American family realizes that it will have to pay one-third more for health insurance or the uninsured learn that they will have to pay a fifth of their income to get insurance, they will make their dissatisfaction felt by their Democratic senators.
All of which begs the fundamental question: How willing are Democratic senators and congressmen to commit political suicide? Are they willing to lose the elderly and to antagonize the uninsured as the health insurance cops chase them around the block? When does JFK's comment kick in: "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much."
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To find out more about Dick Morris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. Distributed By Creators.Com
Copyright 2009 Dick Morris And Eileen Mcgann
This news arrived on: 09/23/2009
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Posted Comments:
10-02-2009 15:26
JCE wrote:
Too bad the republicans don't want the people to have a fair and honest health care coverage for all. When the republicans wanted flood insurance, and the insurance companies wanted the government to run it, the republicans were able to pass it without any problem, using the opposite words they use today. Must be because the insurance companies don't want reform or regulation. They like the Baucus bit of nonsense, so the republicans will vote against it, and still get what the insurance companies want passed made into law, and get the stupid voter to still vote for them. How come the dumocrats aren't as smart as the republicans?
10-01-2009 03:08
JCE wrote:
Am so happy that the republicans finally came out with their health care proposal.
1) Don't get sick.
2) If you do, die quick.
They could care less about the 50,000 or more who die every year from no health care. Or the much larger amount who thought they had health care, and didn't. The republicans will do anything to save a buck for their top 5% of the population masters to live well.
1) Don't get sick.
2) If you do, die quick.
They could care less about the 50,000 or more who die every year from no health care. Or the much larger amount who thought they had health care, and didn't. The republicans will do anything to save a buck for their top 5% of the population masters to live well.
09-28-2009 21:40
WCM wrote:
JCE, A WELL THOUGHT OUT AND WRITTEN POST.
09-27-2009 19:46
JCE wrote:
It isn't fair, this taxes for everyone under Obama. Now under Bush, just taxing the poor and middle class was fine, long as we let the rich get off easy. But to tax the rich, especially the very rich, who don't provide jobs, and who are more parasites than anything, is so unAmerican, so unrepublican. Note it was Lincoln who as the first republican president made for a strong central federal government, taking the rights of the states away, and giving those rights to the big businesses. And it is still republicans who keep it that way, the big corporations ruling, and the people just taking whatever.
09-23-2009 12:54
JCE wrote:
The right continues its spin. It isn't yet Obama care. He hasn't got what he wants yet. I doubt he will. What is emerging is a truly bipartisan bill, written by democrats, ruined by republican amendments, that the insurance companies love, the people, who want reform, will hate, and the president will veto if he keeps his word.
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