Obama: Hey, maybe we should tax health-care benefits
posted at 8:40 pm on June 3, 2009 by Allahpundit
I dimly recall a promise being made during the campaign that people who make less than $250,000 a year wouldn’t be paying any new taxes. Did I imagine that? It’s all a jumble in my mind with Joe the Plumber’s tax problems and the fact that Joe the Plumber’s first name isn’t really Joe and the scandalous revelation that Joe the Plumber doesn’t have a plumber’s license.
I think I did imagine it. The richest one percent is going to pay for everything from now on, right?
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Obama expressed a willingness to consider changing the existing tax exclusion. The decision would probably anger liberal supporters such as labor unions, but such a tax change would raise enormous sums of money as Congress and the White House are struggling to find the estimated $1.2 trillion needed to pay for health-care reform over the next decade.
“Yeah, it’s something that he might consider,” Baucus told reporters after the meeting between Obama and Democratic lawmakers. “That was discussed. It’s on the table.” Obama had summoned about two dozen senators to the White House to keep up the pressure to enact a comprehensive health-care overhaul this year…
Private-sector businesses spend about $518 billion a year on their workers’ health insurance, benefits that are not taxed. If workers had to pay taxes on their health coverage, it would raise $246 billion in revenue each year, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation…
Nevertheless, the issue represents treacherous politics for Obama, given his attacks on Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who advocated a similar approach during the campaign.
Am I misunderstanding or would this be a tax aimed specifically at people who don’t need or use government health insurance? If you’re already getting benefits from your employer, you’re opting out of ObamaCare, no? Or is the whole idea here that once ObamaCare’s in effect, businesses will cancel their private insurance and force employees to opt into universal health care? In which case, er, where’s all the revenue from taxing health benefits coming from? I’m missing something.
Blowback
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Surely, you did NOT believe him.
ladyingray on June 3, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Oh, there is going to be new taxes, count on it.
d1carter on June 3, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Doesn’t surprise me, this is what a statist does when they want power.
jaboba on June 3, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Tax and spend….. It’s the democrat way.
txag92 on June 3, 2009 at 8:47 PM
do you drink milk 2 months after its expiration date?
let’s get real, here…
BPD on June 3, 2009 at 8:47 PM
“Pragmatist.”
Patrick on June 3, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Nope. It really is that dumb. He really is that bent on destroying this economy.
Weight of Glory on June 3, 2009 at 8:49 PM
Un-freaking-believeable…
Hey everybody… y’all are gonna get free healthcare but I’m going to tax you for it!
Skywise on June 3, 2009 at 8:50 PM
It’s like the cigarette tax. You tax something heavily with the goal of simultaneously (a) stopping it from happening, and (b) raising wads of tax dollars. You can’t do both.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on June 3, 2009 at 8:52 PM
No… the DEMOCRATS are bent on doing this. There are two houses of Democrat controlled congress just waiting to bend over and give this to him.
Democrats are destroying America.
Best start using that message now.
Skywise on June 3, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Would I be a racist for calling him a gawd damn Lying sack of Muslim camel crap?
UNREPENTANT CONSERVATIVE CAPITOLIST on June 3, 2009 at 8:52 PM
This Third World level dictator, of questionable circumstances of birth, is obviously trying to kill off competition to his coming “free” Obama/Kevorkian Care Plan.
MB4 on June 3, 2009 at 8:52 PM
I dimly recall a promise being made during the campaign that people who make less than $250,000 a year wouldn’t be paying any new taxes. Did I imagine that?
Expiration date: Whenever he damn well pleases
gsherin on June 3, 2009 at 8:53 PM
The bond market is about to explode on him. If indeed the bottom falls out of the bond market–evidenced by the FED losing control of rates–I don’t think there will be enough of an economy left for any more liberal nitwittery like universal health care. And once Obama sees the well-armed Southern rednecks and the torch-wielding Northern union members, he will probably seek asylum in an Islamic country.
flyfisher on June 3, 2009 at 8:54 PM
That free healthcare sounds expensive.
NeoKong on June 3, 2009 at 8:54 PM
*TWACK* THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?!
*TWACK* THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?!
*TWACK* THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?!
*TWACK* THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?!
ThePrez on June 3, 2009 at 8:54 PM
UNREPENTANT CONSERVATIVE CAPITOLIST
yes
CWforFreedom on June 3, 2009 at 8:54 PM
The best part:
CWforFreedom on June 3, 2009 at 8:55 PM
I mentioned this in the headline thread, but I really want to see the math. It looks like they’re going to be taxing almost 50% on the value of those benefits.
BadgerHawk on June 3, 2009 at 8:56 PM
Ding!
BadgerHawk on June 3, 2009 at 8:58 PM
So said a wise and wonderful former world leader…a real leader, not just the hopey-changey type of world leader. Mrs. Thatcher understood the real world. Obama and his team apparently do not.
The apparent aim of the Obama Administration is twofold…the first is to make almost all Americans totally beholden to government for everything from diapers to burial expenses and everything in between…and the second part is to levy taxes on everything and anything that is not specifically endorsed by Obama…let’s call it a taboo tax system. If Obama likes it, no taxes will be levied. If Obama does not like it…tax the hell out of it.
The next question that needs to be asked, sooner rather than later, is “Then what?” What happens after we run out of people to pay taxes?
coldwarrior on June 3, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Government Care: The best care your forced to have because its the only care your allowed to have.
Government Care: Taking Congressional quality care and giving it out to every 500 people to split.
Government Care: Hey it worked with GM
Defector01 on June 3, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Democrats suddenly become ultra-pro-life. More taxpayers, please.
ThePrez on June 3, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Coming soon – they will rescind the mortgage deduction.
THEN the torches and pitchforks will come out.
Timothy S. Carlson on June 3, 2009 at 9:01 PM
Employees also pay some of the health care premiums which are now tax free.
Still seems like a lot of money in taxes unless all health spending is non-deductible.
Fredlike on June 3, 2009 at 9:04 PM
They can commence birthin’ till the cows come home, but if there are no citizens earning enough to fall into a taxable income bracket, where will the money come from? We’ve already witnessed an anti-corporate Presidency in just the four months, and the Chinese, Russians, even the Brazilians, among others, are talking about pegging the global markets to currencies other than the dollar.
There is nothing “free” about the economic proposals of this Administration…and in both senses of the word.
coldwarrior on June 3, 2009 at 9:05 PM
Bernanke laid down a marker today on the risk of any additional debt.That would mean higher interest rates and the equivilent of gas on a fire.
I’ve seen this story before since I live in CA- Obama is going to go for soak the rich ( rich meaning you), people are going to balk and the “stupid party” may be able to stop this insanity by electoral default.
I hope.
jjshaka on June 3, 2009 at 9:06 PM
I am curious to find out if Obamacare will wipe out private health insurance companies, or will Obama just insert his hand in between the money transfer from the health insurance purchaser and the insurance company.
How many health insurance industry workers would stand to lose their jobs if Obamacare put them out of business?
paulsur on June 3, 2009 at 9:07 PM
Screw it, just forward our paychecks to the Treasury Dept. and despense our goods and services to us.
ThePrez on June 3, 2009 at 9:07 PM
I don’t think the average person who has health insurance benefits from work begins to understand how expensive it is for their employers. I am an employer. It is probably more expensive than a lot of people’s mortgage, for the employer to insure their family’s health care.
So let me get this straight. Basically I am paying my own health care ($468 a month for single coverage) and then I have to fork over $234 a month to pay for my neighbor’s coverage, too? Explain to me how that is a win for me?
DOH.
karenhasfreedom on June 3, 2009 at 9:08 PM
.
Maybe it is the definition of ‘benefits’.
Is this defined and limited to the costs borne by an employer to insure an employee?
Or is the benefit the costs of the actual services received and paid by the insurer?
The difference would be either the tax would be levied on the $8,000.00 cost of the insurance and the $60,000.00 services cost for my cancer treatments for the last 14 months.
.
That’s why I question the definition of ‘benefits.
News2Use on June 3, 2009 at 9:09 PM
What Bernanke said today was all about CYA. He wanted his warning on the record for history’s sake. However, he knows full well that he has enabled this deficit spending. He’s buying hundreds of billions in Treasuries through his Quantitative Easing program. And there is no way to know if he has bought even more through proxies.
Oh yeah, higher rates are pretty much a certainty. Bernanke thought he could hold them down, but he’s losing control of the long end (see TNX chart since he announced his QE program). God help us if he looses control of the short end, too.
flyfisher on June 3, 2009 at 9:11 PM
Here is an old post on the subject. They have been floating this trial balloon for some time now. The post itself contains a campaign commercial for the center for American progress excoriating McCain over the issue.
rob verdi on June 3, 2009 at 9:11 PM
But why would any loving, responsible employer do that?
ManUFan on June 3, 2009 at 9:11 PM
Good post AP.
O’Barry should appoint multiple Health
CareCzars to boost that employment rate. It’s the Obama way to use tax payer money to give jobs to the highest and lowest echelons of the Donks.Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:12 PM
What is a quantitative easing program?
karenhasfreedom on June 3, 2009 at 9:12 PM
Fyckij what the dfuck?
Obarfy
blatantblue on June 3, 2009 at 9:13 PM
What is a quantitative easing program?
karenhasfreedom on June 3, 2009 at 9:12 PM
ACORN
faol on June 3, 2009 at 9:14 PM
I may be wrong, but I think Obama will go after the charitable deduction. Recent studies (acknowledged by liberal columnist Nick Kristof of the NYT) show that conservatives are more generous with their money (and volunteer time) than liberals. So Obama is less likely to alienate people who vote for him if he messes with the charitable deduction than he is if he messes with the mortgage interest deduction.
BuckeyeSam on June 3, 2009 at 9:15 PM
Told ya so! Told ya so! Ta Ta Ta Ta Told ya so!
That’s for my friends who voted for the purple-lipped manboychild.
SouthernGent on June 3, 2009 at 9:16 PM
And the response from the GOP…..
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
angryed on June 3, 2009 at 9:16 PM
Heart-ache.
OneGyT on June 3, 2009 at 9:17 PM
It depends… are you a wise Latina woman?
TMK on June 3, 2009 at 9:17 PM
Waiting for Obama to tax Union membership dues *crickets*
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:18 PM
The wheels are coming off the Obamacart.
TexasJew on June 3, 2009 at 9:19 PM
Most expensive free program evah!
aero on June 3, 2009 at 9:19 PM
Kill the banks/ check
Kill the auto industry/ check
Kill the DOJ/ check
Kill health care/ TBA
Kill NASCAR/ tryin
faol on June 3, 2009 at 9:19 PM
This criminal needs to be stopped at all costs!
elduende on June 3, 2009 at 9:20 PM
Anyone else starting to realize that he is in fact a socialist dictator?
It’s funny, I’ve been saying that he and Chavez are peas in a pod, but Chavez has just had more time in office… Now we even have this statement from Chavez:
http://www.reuters.com/article/ObamaEconomy/idUSTRE5520GX20090603?feedType=RSS&feedName=ObamaEconomy&virtualBrandChannel=10441
Wake up, America!!!
RightWinged on June 3, 2009 at 9:20 PM
Basically they lowered rates to near zero (ZIRP-zero interest rate policy) and began buying Treasuries, which means the FED prints money and buys US debt, thereby enabling the government to continue deficit spending. They are doing in part because tax revenues have gone over the waterfall. When Bernanke announced QE he said it would be done to help control interest rates. Well, rates on the TNX (10-year Treasury) dropped as soon as he announced it, but now they have climbed to above where they were when he made his announcement (Feb or March). The TNX is closely associated to mortgage rates. As the TNX ticks up, so will mortgages, killing any chance of a recovery in real estate.
Due to the precarious position of the bond market, we’re literally on the precipice of Uncle Sam being unable to fund daily operations (or pay for social security and the military) and this stooge of a President is talking about government health care!!!!! It just couldn’t get any worse.
flyfisher on June 3, 2009 at 9:20 PM
Obama is going to ease into a single-payer system. The insurance companies are cooperating because for now they don’t want to be excluded from some list of federally approved list of acceptable insurers. Obama’s group is shoving it down everyone’s throat as an inevitability.
This has to be stopped.
BuckeyeSam on June 3, 2009 at 9:21 PM
A lot, my friend. A lot. I am a nurse working at an insurance company (fraud, cost containment for doctors who charge WAY too much for their care, etc, etc). Since they’ve started ‘restructuring’ healthcare, I started looking for a new place to work.
My guess is thousands of people will be out of a job once Universal Healthcare comes into play….
mjk on June 3, 2009 at 9:23 PM
soon he’ll be taxing the very breath we take.
ctmom on June 3, 2009 at 9:24 PM
The highest marginal tax rate now is 35%. When the Bush cuts expire it will be 39.6%. So how will $518B of income generate $246B in revenue, which is 47% of $518B?
angryed on June 3, 2009 at 9:25 PM
Actually, it’s likely that any tax on health benefits (strictly speaking, it’s an elimination of an exclusion from income enacted into the Internal Revenue Code during World War II), will somehow exclude wide swaths of Obama supporters. Non-union employees–screwed. Governmental employees and union employees–somehow grandfathered. For the latter groups, Obama will probably rediscover the sanctity of contract clause in the Constitution. The clause that he overlooked in running an end run around bondholders in the auto bankruptcies.
BuckeyeSam on June 3, 2009 at 9:27 PM
“I dimly recall a promise being made during the campaign that people who make less than $250,000 a year wouldn’t be paying any new taxes.”
.
No, the phrase was more like “people who make less than $250,000 a year wouldn’t see any increase in their tax rates” — which we were lead to believe meant IRS tax tables.
CaveatEmpty on June 3, 2009 at 9:28 PM
‘If you are a middle class family, making less than $250,000 a year, you will NOT see your taxes go up – not your income tax, not your payroll tax, none of them – your taxes will NOT go up.’ — Barack Obama
flyfisher on June 3, 2009 at 9:31 PM
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:32 PM
Yes, unfortunately…
If Bush was the Worstest prez we evah had and evah will,
can we at least admit that Obama is in the top 5 of Constitution Breakers?
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:33 PM
Devil’s advocate: what “WAY too much”? I don’t think docs are our problem in this country. The feds lowball them on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, and they get gouged on malpractice premiums. Many people don’t understand the time it takes to remain “on top” of the recent developments, drug studies, and the like. Docs don’t get paid for that time. Feel free to dump on the docs doing hair plugs and other plastic surgeries. And feel free to dump on the docs that are more assembly line than professionals. But, by and large, docs aren’t the problem. I don’t begrudge any of them the money they make–unless they’re quacks.
BuckeyeSam on June 3, 2009 at 9:35 PM
Remember when opposing Obama was irrational because the individual tax burden under him would be smaller under Obama than McCain?
Remember that?
Kensington on June 3, 2009 at 9:36 PM
There we go now it’s fixed.
boomer on June 3, 2009 at 9:37 PM
*gasp* No freakin’ way…not…not…NASCAR??
ladyingray on June 3, 2009 at 9:37 PM
Waiting patiently for John McCain to say “I told ya so”
Not holding my breath.
Knucklehead on June 3, 2009 at 9:38 PM
What was that?
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:38 PM
Let’s see. This coupled with the national sales tax, new license plate fees from Gov. Ritter, increase in income tax, and whatever tax they come up with to pay for socialized medicine, oh ya the tax on my 401k…yep, I’ll have about $.17 to feed my kids with.
boomer on June 3, 2009 at 9:40 PM
Just don’t buy cheap soda (which will be taxed). You’ll be forced to buy juice (which will probably not be covered by your $.17)…
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Allah, you’re not ‘missing’ anything, you just have to keep the ol’ eyeball on the pea as it’s shuffled around on the table.
GarandFan on June 3, 2009 at 9:43 PM
Crap I forgot about the junk food tax. Well I might be able to get by on $.11…mabye.
boomer on June 3, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Typical of Oboingonomics. He simply cannot see ahead more than one move. “Think of all the revenue we’d raise if we taxed everyone at 100% so that those who didn’t want to work wouldn’t have to.” I shake my head in disbelief that such a boob could be elected POTUS.
mr.blacksheep on June 3, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Oh no I forgot about the energy tax too. Well…brother can you spare a dime?
boomer on June 3, 2009 at 9:46 PM
I dont like the idea of gov’t run health care. But I don’t like privately insured heathcare either. Why do you think prices are so high anyway? it is becuase insurance regulates the price and takes their cut. Since insurance are publically run companies that have to grow profits, the only way they can do this is by resetting the price they charge thie customers ever higher. if you were to make health insurance compaines illegal and took them out of the mix, you could drive prices down dramatically.
paulsur on June 3, 2009 at 9:46 PM
Give him a break. When he made that promise, he was only trying to earn your vote.
tommylotto on June 3, 2009 at 9:47 PM
See you in the soup kitchens by Christmas…
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:47 PM
I have 8 employee’s, 3 of them are single, the rest have families of 5. Each employee pays 25% of my costs with a $500 deductible.
It’s going cost me about $83,000 this year for their coverage. So basically my crew works one day a week to cover this crazy bill.
Knucklehead on June 3, 2009 at 9:49 PM
Health insurance is a lot like mafia insurance. It’s a protection racket pure and simple.
paulsur on June 3, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Silly capitalists, you forgot the increased FICA – presumably the Employee as well as the Employer portion, although there is (at least for now) a cap of subject wages of ~ $100,000 – as well as the Medicare tax….What, you thought it would be limited to ordinary income taxes?!
churchill995 on June 3, 2009 at 9:52 PM
If I have to get stuck with governement helth plan, I want the same one Obama has. He is a public servant no better than anyone else. If we get forced into this by the government, than we better get the same kind they get.
paulsur on June 3, 2009 at 9:53 PM
I think they were including FICA tax on the insurance premiums, since that will be considered “income”, thus the higher overall % over 39.5% or whatever it is going to when the Bush tax cuts expire.
karenhasfreedom on June 3, 2009 at 9:54 PM
Hehhhh
Do you expect to get the Timmy G treatment from the IRS…?
Upstater85 on June 3, 2009 at 9:55 PM
This is the same reasoning that leads to Michael Moore’s solution of taxing gas an additional two bucks a gallon to pay for “green” cars. Or using tobacco taxes to pay for health care programs which in turn are dependent on more people smoking.
TheMightyMonarch on June 3, 2009 at 9:56 PM
gasp* No freakin’ way…not…not…NASCAR??
ladyingray on June 3, 2009 at 9:37 PM
Yes, and you’re little dog too!
faol on June 3, 2009 at 9:58 PM
I don’t know, I think the inhale would still be free. The deadly planet-killing carbon dioxide we exhale, on the other hand…
Rhinoboy on June 3, 2009 at 10:00 PM
flyfisher,
I don’t know about that. We could always run out of beer.
Seriously though, spot on synopsis of “Quantitive Easing”. In personal finance terms, it’s the equvalent of paying off the minimum balance due on a maxed out credit card with another credit card.
Mike Honcho on June 3, 2009 at 10:02 PM
BuckeyeSam on June 3, 2009 at 9:35 PM
My husband is an anesthesiologist. He always counters any comments about how much he makes with the question, “how much is it worth to you to wake up after surgery?”. Put like that, hmm…….
catlady on June 3, 2009 at 10:04 PM
No, you’re not missing anything. As usual, they are.
BacaDog on June 3, 2009 at 10:04 PM
As one that enjoys this benefit, all other things being equal I wouldn’t have an issue with being taxed on this since it is essentially income to me. Of course all things are NOT equal, I already pay a high rate of tax, in part courtesy of the brilliant creation of the Alternative Minimum Tax that was not intended for people like me, but was allowed by the clueless political class to ultimately absorb even me, while approximately 40% pay no income tax and many non-income taxpayers get “tax refunds” courtesy of The One and the Democratic “leadership”.
One redeeming quality of this proposal is that it will p^$$ off the unions too. Throw in all the auto workers thrown out looking to take it out on the new CEO of Obamamotors and he might take a significant hit in 2012.
churchill995 on June 3, 2009 at 10:05 PM
Oh, I forgot beer!
Kill Beer/ TBT> to be taxed
faol on June 3, 2009 at 10:06 PM
I was on the phone with my mother today (a Baby Boomer, born 1955), and we were discussing the fact – not possibility, but fact – that our economy will sink into a depression if Cap-and-Trade or “Healthcare Reform” is passed before the end of the year like Obama wants. My mom said, “I just can’t believe that there’s actually going to be a depression in my lifetime. We did this once already and didn’t learn anything from it?”
I was born in 1984, so I’ve known nothing but prosperity in my lifetime. Even so, I just can’t believe that SO many Americans who remember the 70s learned NOTHING from the experience. I cannot believe that hardly a generation passes before socialism rears its ugly head again. I want the horrors I’ve read about to STAY in the history books – I don’t want to live them. For the first time, though I’m frightened. I can prepare to some extent for inflation or the loss of a job, but I really don’t know what I’ll do if the government takes over healthcare. I may be relatively healthy, but I know a lot of people (many elderly) who are not and if the government starts rationing as we KNOW they will, I hope that the wrath of the American people is finally awoken in defense of our countrymen.
Is this what it’s going to take, America? How much will be destroyed before you’ve had enough?
Animator Girl on June 3, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Still doesn’t add up. Here’s why:
90% of income earners are below 100K. So OK add the 15.3% FICA to them. But the average tax rate for everyone is about 20%. So that is about a 35% tax rate on 90% of the benefits.
The math doesn’t work.
angryed on June 3, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Animator Girl on June 3, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Like the Phoenix we will rise again.
faol on June 3, 2009 at 10:08 PM
You’ve all seen the cartoon. Wile E. Coyote runs off the edge of the cliff, but it’s a few moments before he realizes the situation, looks around wondering how he got there, then begins the plunge.
Sooner, rather than later, massive tax increases are going to be chasing runaway spending into a death spiral. Growing taxation of a decreasing revenue. It’s the only way the liberal knows how to draw the cartoon.
I’m afraid we are now Wile E. Coyote. We have already gone over the cliff. Look around, realize we can’t get back, and prepare for the fall. Calculate the acceleration of gravity to see how fast we are going to hit bottom.
Best effort now is to determine how we begin to put it all back together correctly when we regain control.
Yoop on June 3, 2009 at 10:09 PM
When did Americans vote to be taxed to death for rationed healthcare? I don’t think they are going to stand for it.
Blake on June 3, 2009 at 10:14 PM
My sister is in the last stages of fighting cancer. She is at home in Hospice Care, after 16 months of treatments for Uterine, Vaginal, bone, lung cancer, that spread to brain tumors and tumors that ate her vertebrae. (Oh and liver and lymph nodes) She has suffered a lot, but due to her wonderful Oncologist, we have had sixteen plus months more with her, to celebrate her life, and courage. She has been a great example for my kids.
If she had this under national healthcare, 1) she would not have gotten diagnosed in time to do anything, and 2) she would have not gotten any treatment at all. And probably 3) there would have been no palliative care for her, resulting in more agony than she has been through.
I am glad that she will soon end her journey, because I do not want her to suffer anymore – BUT ALSO BECAUSE of the coming mess we will have with healthcare.
catlady on June 3, 2009 at 10:15 PM
If he does, I’m sure it would only be for the top 5% of the population, because I remember what I said when he campaigned. I’m sure he wouldn’t lie!
Star20 on June 3, 2009 at 10:15 PM
There have to be a number of variables, but I have to believe it will be subject to FICA and Medicare, just like ordinary wages. Perhaps it builds in a significant increase in the cap on FICA – say to $250,000…
churchill995 on June 3, 2009 at 10:16 PM
When did Americans vote to be taxed to death for rationed healthcare? I don’t think they are going to stand for it.
Blake on June 3, 2009 at 10:14 PM
The media will sell it for him.
faol on June 3, 2009 at 10:18 PM
Guys, a couple of reasons health care is so much is because we need to cap the amount of money somebody can sue for in a mishap they suffer at the hands of a doctor. Some of these cases are way overblown and way way too much money is rewarded for things like mental anquish. Now if a doc really screwed up then I have no problem with the victim being compensated but, come on how many of those cases were blown out of proportion by somebody looking to get rich quick. Those kinds of things drive up malpractice insurance for doctors which is something they have to pass of on the patients. Another thing that ticks me off are the number of people who are on medicare or medicaid who use ER’s like a doctors office. Then the government turns around and refuses to pay for many of those charges and the hospital can’t get anything out of the patient. That is another reason charges are so inflated. They have to cover for what they aren’t getting paid for. So in effect, we the taxpayer get to pay for those bills twice. Once when they take it out of our check, then again with the inflated prices we get charged to cover what the feds refused to pay. Yes, healthcare costs more than it should. But, if you got rid of a lot of the government regulations it would get cheaper. Like in every other aspect of our lives big brother has his fingers in way too deep.
boomer on June 3, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Here is an example of why people hate doctors, or at least their income.
When my daughter was born, she was looked at by a pediatrician each of the 4 days she was in the hospital. Just a routine exam, no tests, no labs, nothing out of the ordinary. I am not exaggerating when I say the entire time she spent with the pediatrician was 45 minutes total. About a month later I get a bill from the pediatrician’s medical group for $1200. Insurance covered $900, I was responsible for $300.
Now I have no issue with doctors making a lot of money. All those years in med school, the constant keeping up with medicines, etc. I get it. But $1200 for 45 minutes work hour works out to $3.2M a year. And that’s ridiculous.
And the frustrating this is health care is about the only product where you as a consumer have no idea what the cost is upfront. It;s not like I could ask the doctor, hey how much do you charge? And when he says $1600 an hour, I’d say FUCK YOU, and look for someone else. Even with a routine checkup, you have no idea what the bill will be. Could be $50, could be $5000. You just don’t know. And then you get a 4 page bill that requires a PhD in bureaucratic studies to decipher with codes that no human could possibly have come up with.
Imagine if other industries worked like this. You go in for an oil change, a month later Jiffy Lube sends you a bill for $350 broken down by oil used, parts used, tech labor, facility charge, facility surcharge, oil filter fee, cash register fee, complimentary coffee fee, parking fee, speaking to receptionist fee.
angryed on June 3, 2009 at 10:20 PM
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