Introduction
I’m sure that you and your family are hurting like many other families all across America due to this recession. Well, it’s not getting any better, no matter what any of our elected leaders do or tell us. Right now, Congress is struggling to pass a “healthcare overhaul” as fast as they can. Our representatives and senators are telling us that it will take the burden of employer-based health coverage off of businesses, will help our economy, and my favorite “ensure no insurance company can drop your coverage when you most need it”. Truly, do these people even see what they are doing? Their new healthcare bill has over 20 taxes in it and is currently 2,074 page long! Don’t think it’s going to help America now, do you? Simply, this new bill increases existing taxes, tightens controls over the private sector, and ultimately will HARM, NOT HELP business in America to regain its strength.
Taxes & Regulation in the Healthcare Bill
Our politicians first argument that we need their new healthcare reform bill is that it will be better for businesses and take the burden of covering employees off of the business owner. Oh yeah! Well, the money to pay for this bill must come from somewhere; either borrow it from other nations and spend it, or tax it from the economy. Both are bad ideas, since our national debt recently crossed the $12,000,000,000,000 (twelve trillion) mark, and since we know that higher taxation, for one-does not help our economy and two-has not been shown to increase tax revenue just because the tax rates are higher. In the current healthcare bill, there are 20 new taxes and several new regulations.
Here is the list:
1. Flat tax on alcohol: currently liquor is taxed the most in the United States, more than beer, wine, or any other alcoholic drink. This flat tax will implement the same high sales tax on beer and wine, by raising the current taxes on those drinks to that of liquor. This will greatly damage the brewing industry since they pay BOTH an income and sales tax. One on their revenues and one on their sales.
2. An excise tax of 40% on health coverage: this tax will hit anyone who spends more than $8500 (individually) $23,000 (families). That will be terrible for any employers or individuals who buy healthcare coverage and spend more than the amounts shown. Families that are larger will be impacted more because they obviously spend more as a family.
3. Fees on importers of branded drugs: I have not yet confirmed the rate, but I do know that this will be a $22 billion dollar tax increase. This will only cause healthcare costs to go up, not down.
4. Increase in FICA Payroll taxes: this will be an increase in the Medicare portion of payroll taxes. In this economy that is the worst thing that you can do, because for one, it will take more money of peoples pockets and it is a regressive tax, meaning the burden will be on lower-income families. Although this tax pays for Social Security and Medicare, the only way to truly increase revenues to those two programs is to grow the economy, which taxes don’t do!
5. 5% tax on cosmetic surgery procedures: this is a $6 billion dollar tax increase on cosmetic surgeries and similar procedures. I don’t know how putting a tax on procedures will lower healthcare costs, it really doesn’t make much sense. And if something doesn’t make sense, it’s nonsense.
6. “millionaires” tax: although this tax is called a millionaires tax, there have been reports suggesting that it will hit everyone no matter what tax bracket you are in. Starting at 1% and increasing gradually to 5.4%.
7. Tax on employers who do not provide coverage: this tax would be implemented on any employer who does not provide coverage for his employees and has a payroll larger than $250,000/year. The tax ranges from 2%-8%.
There are several other taxes included in the bill, Congress is even thinking of taxing Sodas and I-Pods to pay for this bill. You will be taxed if you have health coverage, you will be taxed if you don’t. You will be taxed if you buy your coverage, your employer will be taxed if they buy or don’t buy your coverage. This bill is a complete disaster and it is expected to cost $1.5 trillion dollars MORE than what the Congressional Budget Office predicts. And you may ask, how can they be so far off? Simply accounting tricks used to cover up its real costs.
Glenn Beck Discusses New Taxes:
Along with taxes come several regulations, two particularly caught my eye:
1. Jailtime: this is a regulation, that if you do not buy healthcare coverage, you get JAILTIME! If this bill passes, you will no longer have the right to not buy health coverage. The jailtime regulation will hit poorer families the hardest, because many of them cannot afford an extra $700-$1,500 a month. Congress must understand that if I don’t want to buy healthcare coverage, then they cannot force me to do so. There are people in America that do not have healthcare coverage, that can afford it, but choose not to buy it. It would be like the government saying that the average American is three or four pounds overweight, so we need to shut down all of America’s fast food restaurants. This is simply how these progressives think, they believe it is their right to decide what is best for you. Know this America, only you can decide what’s best for you, not anyone else and most certainly, NOT the state.
Glenn Beck Discusses Healthcare Jailtime:
2. No more “pre-existing” denials: if passed, the healthcare bill would include a provision that would make it illegal for health insurance companies to deny you coverage for healthcare. Now at first it does sound great, but think about it. If health insurance companies cannot deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, that will make everyones premiums increase. Why? Because if a patient needs a $10,000 surgery and they cannot be denied, how much is everyone who is insured by that company going to need to pay every month to cover surgeries that cost more. It would simply be like AIG insuring homes that are already burned down, or Geico insuring cars that have already gotten into an accident, it makes no sense. This will make our premiums go up, and when they do, you will probably be able to count on old Uncle Sam to come in and “fix” the problem.
“Shinning Examples” of Government-Run Healthcare
Medicare and Medicaid are flawed systems that currently deny more people healthcare than any major private health insurance company. From personal experience, I’m aware of a Medicaid patient who died, not because of the quality of the private system, but because of the downfalls of the government-run system. She had diabetes and needed a pancreas transplant. She was told by the government that she could not go to the hospital she needed to go to for her treatment, and that she must stay in her local area. Unfortunately, she died because of the lack of efficeincy of our public-sector government.
A friend of mine who lived in Canada, hurt his ankle one day and needed stitches. He had to wait eight hours to get his stitches. That is absurd, only for stitches, he was forced to wait several hours for them. Imagine how many lives we will be able to save in America if we just had a system like that!
Sources:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574358882642883214.html
http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/reid-health-care-bill-adds-new-tax-increases-costs-twice-as-much-as-promised/
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1187-The-Health-Care-Bill-s-Tax-Increases
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574358882642883214.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22675.html
Glenn Beck Program, Fox New Channel
