Say Anything Blog

So if you want less of something you make it more expensive. 

Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad (D-ND) told reporters that the Finance Committee was able to reduce the overall cost of the bill by cutting subsidy levels for uninsured people.  Subsidy levels had originally contemplated assistance for families with incomes up to 400% of the poverty level or $88,200 for a family of 4. The eligibility for assistance would be lowered to 300% of the poverty level or $66, 150 for a family of 4.

As currently conceived, the $1 trillion bill would be fully funded by three things: tax increases, Medicare cuts and penalties assessed against employers who do not offer health insurance.

The Finance Committee version of the bill is said to include about $300 billion in new taxes. These taxes would be assessed against the value of employer sponsored health insurance. At this time there is no tax imposed on the value of health insurance premiums paid by an employer for the benefit of employees.  Millions of American get their health insurance through employers and have never had to include the value of those premiums as taxable income.

A small portion of the public doesn’t have health insurance.  If you take out people who aren’t citizens of this country, people who can afford it, but choose not to and people who chose not to pay for it, and people who are without for a few months we don’t really have much of a problem.

But politicians love control.  They know most people are happy with the health care they receive.  So he has to destroy what you have.

Apparently he wants to make your health insurance a whole lot more expensive for you to have.  That’s just crazy, until you realize that providing health care isn’t really what they’re after.

They want your money and your health.

The other provisions of the Conrad health plan are great as well.  They want to give someone making over $60,000 a year your money so they can buy health insurance.  I’d like Kent to explain why their insurance coverage should come out of our pocket when they don’t care to buy it themselves.

I also like the lie that they’d pay for it with “Medicare Cuts.”  Excuse me.  Medicare is broke as it is while the costs of the program skyrocket.  Sure we need to save money, but if we do, there won’t be any extra money sitting around to pay for the slackers that don’t want to pay for their own insurance.

Most people don’t realize just how much people on private health plans are already subsidizing Medicare services.  I’m told by providers who would know that thirty to forty percent of what you pay to get medical services is because Medicare doesn’t pay their way.  The cost gets shifted on people with private plans.  That means, unlike what the politicians claim, that we are paying a tax already on our health insurance benefits.

Kent Conrad needs to be told to keep his hands off of our health care.  We don’t want crappy service like the 100% government run Indian Health Service.  When it comes down to it, there’s more than enough programs out there for the truly needy.  This plan would be truly counterproductive.