More Healthcare Spending - More Taxes

CBO report: New taxes will pay for Senate health care bill
10/08/09 - OpenMarket by Fran Smith

[edited] The Congressional Budget Office reports that the Baucus healthcare bill in the Senate would reduce federal budget deficits by $81 billion during 2010-2019. Supporters were ecstatic.

The government and most news reports emphasize deficits. But, it is the SPENDING that matters. This healthcare bill gigantically increases spending. It reduces the deficit by increasing taxes and fees by more than the increased spending. Further, past healthcare programs have been 5 to 10 times more expensive than estimated at the time they were enacted.

A clearer statement would be:
"Healthcare legislation will raise government spending by at least $829 billion. But don't worry, it will raise taxes and fees by $910 billion, providing an extra $81 billion to the Treasury."

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The major problem for the Baucus healthcare bill has been to hide the massive tax increases on people. It pretends these taxes are on businesses and insurers. But, all of these "business taxes" will be passed on to the people, at all levels of income.

The savings included in the bill are unrealistic. They are there only to get a good score from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO must assume that those savings will be there, because the bill says they will be there.

Businesses organize work. They aren't a magic piggy bank. Taxes on private health insurance companies must be paid by charging more for insurance. So, the company writes the check, but the customers pay those taxes.

Taxes on employement must be paid out of the total productivity of the employees. Employee salaries are what is left over. The government wants to charge companies 8% of salaries to support government health insurance. That 8% actually would be paid by employees as a reduction in salaries.

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The truth about the Baucus bill - Part Two
10/12/09 - Washington Examiner Editorial

[edited excerpts] The Baucus bill generates revenue or shifts costs in many ways:

• Cuts to Medicare and Medicare Advantage - $426 billion
• Fines imposed on those who do not purchase insurance - $4 billion
• Levies on health insurance companies providing high-end health insurance plans - $201 billion
• New taxes on medical devices and drugs - $180 billion
• New income taxes on individuals - $83 billion
• New taxes on employers - $25 billion
• Reductions in Medicare reimbursements to hospitals, which will require more cost shifting from such facilities to their patients

Price Waterhouse Coopers has released a study done for the health insurance industry.

• Average family health insurance is now $12,300.
  This will be $18,400 by 2016 doing nothing.
  Baucus will make it $21,300.
• Individuals average $4,600.
  This will be $6,900 by 2016 doing nothing.
  Baucus will make it $7,900.
• Obamacare advocates say that higher costs will be largely offset by tax credits for lower-income families. But, tax credits only shift the burden of payment from Peter to Paul [from the middle class to the poor].

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Memo - Health Plan Deficit Reduction
09/2008 - EasyOpinions Outlink

A (fictional) memo has surfaced revealing the thought guiding healthcare policy.

Excerpt: "The estimated deficit for our health reorganization plan is causing us trouble in the press. President Obama has promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, and not to increase the deficit. Unfortunately, we have to live with this until the plan passes Congress."

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The Real Tax Burden
01/2009 - EasyOpinions

The real tax burden is current government spending. Government borrowing and delayed taxes are merely finance. It won't be just "the other guy" who will pay. The middle class and rich will pay in dollars. Poorer citizens will lose employment.

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Company Paid Health Insurance is Part of Your Salary
12/2008 - EasyOpinions

You generate all of the wealth that pays your salary and the taxes associated with your employment. The employer writes the check, but you earned that money, and it would be part of your take-home pay if the burden did not exist on the employer. Competition for skills would arrange that outcome.

In the same way, when a company pays for your health insurance, it is merely writing the check with part of your earnings, earnings that you never see, but could control yourself.