Shouldn’t the “surtax” be called the Doctor Tax?
posted at 4:30 pm on July 15, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
The House version of ObamaCare plans to levy a surtax on individuals earning the highest incomes in America to defray the costs of “reform”. Who would those people be? The Bureau of Labor Statistics has data from May 2008 available on its site on mean incomes of all professions in the US, fortunately downloadable in spreadsheet form. After entertainers and athletes, which professions earn the highest mean annual salaries — and will likely have to contribute most to the surtax? Here are the top 15:
- Surgeons
- Anesthesiologists
- Orthodontists
- Obstetricians and gynecologists
- Oral and maxillofacial surgeons
- Internists, general
- Prosthodontists
- Physicians and surgeons, all other
- Family and general practitioners
- Chief executives
- Dentists, general
- Psychiatrists
- Pediatricians, general
- Dentists, all other specialists
- Podiatrists
Notice a pattern here? Fourteen of the top 15 positions (again, after entertainers and athletes, for which the BLS gives no mean annual income) come from the health-care field. Only CEOs break the pattern, coming in at #10, which might surprise some class-warriors. Lawyers come in at #16, by the way.
Now, this data may make some people say, “Well, great! Doctors make too much money anyway!” However, this also shows that we have a system that compensates the actual providers of health care at a rate which keeps supply at a point where we don’t have to worry about waiting a year for a surgery we need or whether a dentist even works anywhere near where we live. Penalizing the actual providers of medical care means less incentive for the straight-A students to enter the field, which will curtail supply at a point where demand will skyrocket, thanks to the suddenly cost-free basis for people to seek it. That’s exactly the trap into which other single-payer systems have fallen.
Besides, the argument for both health-care reform and the surtax is to supposedly break the bank of those eeeeeevil insurance companies that make all of that money, right? It looks like the entire premise is flawed — which the profit performance of health insurers as a group already attests. (Thanks to HA reader Michael Velez for pointing this out.)
Blowback
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It’s a good idea to visit with a financial planner who can suggest ways to defer your income for the next 3.5 years so you can ride this crapola out. I will happily do without a few luxuries while we sit on our $$ before I’ll give another stinking cent to those vultures! If the assclown gets re-elected…Revolution Time!
redwhiteblue on July 15, 2009 at 5:37 PM
Bush also did a lot of things that never should have happened. Like signing the bailout.
Fletch54 on July 15, 2009 at 5:32 PM
Score!! Bush was great on security, but stunk on economy. He had help though – when I think about Barney Frank and co slapping down concerns about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in those congressional hearings…
catlady on July 15, 2009 at 5:39 PM
I hope you are kidding or being sarcastic. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money and having something to show for all your hard work! Most doctors probably started off in medicine for altruistic reasons, as well as monetary. You forget how much it costs to go to med school, and how in-debt most doctors are once they get out. They also pay out the wazoo for medical malpractice insurance, thanks to our attorney friends encouraging all these frivolous lawsuits.
If Obamacare passes there won’t be enough doctors to go around, but yeah, for sure, those left will be practicing only for altruistic reasons.
You Socialist-minded citizens need to be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.
Susanboo on July 15, 2009 at 5:40 PM
Let’s only tax
registered Democratspeople who voted for Obama to pay for health care.Susanboo on July 15, 2009 at 5:43 PM
Doctors are like Attorneys…they are worthless till you need them…then you want the very best, highest quality, best educated.
The “leaders” of our country never have to worry, they have a different medical system, they get what they want, when they want…at no charge.
So they could care less…now if we ever pass what I call the goose/gander law, then we will see.
The law would force the congress to have the exact same medical treatment, the same social security, the same schools (no private only public for them)…then you would see some of these idiots come down off the mountain…
right2bright on July 15, 2009 at 5:49 PM
My God. It’s even more self-destructive than I thought.
You know what would be funny?
Doctors form a union and then go on strike.
LOL!
Sapwolf on July 15, 2009 at 5:52 PM
I looked at this earlier when someone posted the link. That is the most confusing chart I have ever seen!
CHANGE you can count on!!
Susanboo on July 15, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Yes. Now imagine that on your 1-year old child screaming while you are helping them hold him down. Sheer terror on my son’s face, sheer terror. Never saw anything like it. it made my eyes water.
F**k I’m so off this thread.
Sapwolf on July 15, 2009 at 5:56 PM
He promised a lot that he could not get through because Congress is such a pain in the A**. However, in his defense, when he was Gov of Texas, he succeeded in getting TORT reform started, and now we are one of the more “doctor-friendly” states.
Susanboo on July 15, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Or having a nurse, yourself and wife hold arms, chest, and legs to get a shot. Glad I am past that stage.
WashJeff on July 15, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Ed, are you actually suggesting that those professions make in excess of $1M a year? What is the point of this post?
DaveS on July 15, 2009 at 6:03 PM
My A student 10 year old was interested in being a doctor…
How do I break the news to him that it would better to become
a song & dance man instead?
izoneguy on July 15, 2009 at 6:04 PM
If we’re going to have single payer health care might was well go whole hog and have single payer legal care.
Oh, you mean under such a system lawyers would have to get payment from the government just like doctors are going to have to?
And they’d basically be government employees just like doctors are going to be?
And so the government gets to decide how much to pay lawyers just like they’ll be deciding how much to pay doctors?
And the government gets to decide which are important cases just like they’ll be deciding what an important treatment is?
Aren’t most politicians lawyers?
Let’s have us some Legal Care Reform !!!
BowHuntingTexas on July 15, 2009 at 6:04 PM
I don’t know about other parts of the country but in the two states i’ve lived in in the last two years, orthodontists have been scrambling for patients. Odumbo and company are (as usual) not factoring in the retched economy.
There is no unlimited supply of funds to pay for their destruction of the economy.
ORconservative on July 15, 2009 at 6:07 PM
I wanted one on my car really badly, but alas, I live in a liberal bastion. I wouldn’t dare put anything Republican on my car, more out of fear for myself then my car.
Susanboo on July 15, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Susanboo on July 15, 2009 at 5:40 PM
so true…I am at number two on that list, fortunately I will not be facing the 5.4% surtax, in any event, I will not continue to put in the time i currently do(80-100 hrs/wk) under the Obamacare system. It would not really meet my economic interests to work myself into needing Obamacare all the while supporting the siily thing…there is no question that care will be more difficult to find…just sayin’
t on July 15, 2009 at 6:14 PM
They chose the wrong specialty. Ortho is largely elective. The real money-makers are the endodontists – root canal specialists. When you wake up with that kind of pain, it’s not elective.
We have dentist friends of all specialties. Here’s what’s happened. When general practitioners see their business fall off because people delay routine or restorative care or choose not to have cosmetic work, the GP’s take some of the specialty work on themselves. This is a terrible thing for the patient in the case of endodontics or periodontics, but what the heck? The GP has boat payments to make.
Another factor is that lots of boomer practitioners who were counting on retiring about now got so hammered on their investments, so they keep working. Meanwhile, dental school graduates who were expecting to replace the boomers can’t find jobs or practices to buy, so they hire themselves out part-time to several offices. The GP gets half of those revenues – and the full-time orthodontists are out of luck.
Medical professionals aren’t immune from recessions – just a little bit more insulated.
guntotinglibertarian on July 15, 2009 at 6:19 PM
Of all my fellow docs here in southern Indiana, I don’t know of a single one who isn’t disgusted by this plan of Obama’s (or most of his others).
mikeyboss on July 15, 2009 at 6:22 PM
Some of them do, individually. But lots more are married to other professionals or small-business owners, so that puts them over the magic million mark.
What’s important to note is that a sur-tax is not an just an increase in marginal rates: it’s a percentage added on top of your income tax.
So, taking a million-dollar couple who is already hammered with the AMT, they are currently paying about $300,000 in federal income tax. (Plus, as self-employed people, another $35,000 in FICA taxes.)
Very soon, you can easily expect their top marginal rate to go from 35% to 40%, which means another $35,000 in federal taxes.
So they will be paying #335,000 in federal income tax plus a surtax aomunt of $18,090, for a total of $353,090. Plus their FICA OF $35,000.
And Obammy wants to remove the cap on FICA taxes. For this couple, that will add another $117,000.
Altogether, Barry wants to raise their taxes from $335,000 to $505,090. If you live in California, as we do, add another $100,000 or so in State income tax and $20,000 or so in sales and other taxes.
A million dollars sounds like a lot. A net, after tax, of $374,910 – not so much.
Slavery is when someone takes 100% of the value of your labor.
What should we call it when government takes “just” 63%?
Any wonder some of us say to hell with trying – and where’s the exit?
guntotinglibertarian on July 15, 2009 at 6:37 PM
Being a GATOR MOM, you know my kids ages…and we
know 5 students who have changed their plans already…
UF, FSU, and USF students changing their young/lifelong dreams. So sad for all of us!
spacewife on July 15, 2009 at 6:41 PM
guntotinglibertarian on July 15, 2009 at 6:37 PM
That is what I am saying…..one reaches a point where the extra work does not pay off…that is when you go Galt
t on July 15, 2009 at 6:55 PM
I’m an employed physician by a rural hospital, so my income doesn’t even put me at where Obama claimed he would only tax.
I have about 30 more years to go on my student loans since I can only put aside so much for that with a family to support and kids to put through school. As I work in a hospital that gets grants, we have to accept Medicaid. So, I’m already paying taxes that pay for that patient to come in and be seen…by me. And they are the ones most likely to complain about service, quickest to sue, and never seem to have any problem affording cell phones, cigarettes and booze.
But at least if my taxes go up more, I can pay to treat even more people. Wheee!
I would love for every pol. who tries to make our medical care like the UK’s to take a step toward making our LEGAL system like theirs, too. In England (I’m not sure about all of the UK, but to Obama it’s interchangable anyway) if you file a lawsuit and lose, YOU pay court expenses. This virtually eliminates frivolous lawsuits right off the bat, no lawyer will take a case that’s a nuisance suit if it was likely he wouldn’t get paid and his client had to pay expenses to boot.
DrAllecon on July 15, 2009 at 7:24 PM
I recognize that you qualify your point by referring to the group as an aggregate, but entertainment and sports figures skew those salaries disproportionately. Physicians tend to be conservative, especially more so the higher their level of specialty.
The health field is hit with costs from all sides: liability insurance, expensive educations and training, weak reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. lawsuits, small business taxes in some cases, etc.
Some in the medical profession, such as unionized nurses or aides, might be inclined to be Obama supporters, but they reflect union dogma.
Many entertainers “incorporate themselves” to avoid taxes that they would pay as individuals.
Anyone seeking to enter medicine has to think twice about their being relegated to positions as State workers of no more consequence than the clerk who submits insurance claims.
onlineanalyst on July 15, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Tell that to my wife, Mrs./Dr. Guntotinglibertarian, who contributed the maximum to Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Pat Toomey.
guntotinglibertarian on July 15, 2009 at 8:16 PM
And you know why: Most of the Dems in Congress are supported by the trial lawyers PACS and associations.
onlineanalyst on July 15, 2009 at 8:24 PM
TORT REFORM!! That is key to driving costs in health care down. Reform malpractice lawsuits and it starts a chain reaction…
catlady on July 15, 2009 at 8:33 PM
That…..
Is one F*CKED UP SYSTEM!
Chaz706 on July 15, 2009 at 9:12 PM
That’s the beauty of the minimum wage – it lets one turn around the definition of money into a value-per-time basis. You can then properly define slavery as “working without pay,” for any amount of time, which means 2/3rds (near enough) of healthcare should, in the lefty twit’s ideal world – be provided by slaves.
I don’t know about you but I’d object to a slave working life-and-death matters on my body. They might take it somewhat untoward if you catch my meaning – and take it out on me.
Blacksmith on July 15, 2009 at 10:43 PM
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