SIXTY–THREE DOLLARS!? OH! NO! HOW WILL WE EVER PAY IT??
The next phase for the nay-sayers and anti-Affordable Health Care plan is the recent news of a “secretly imbedded sleeper issue” of having insured employees with pre-existing conditions, i.e., diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, etc., being burdened with a $63 per person, per YEAR (did you get that—that’s PER YEAR for a total of three years—not into infinity, and each year the $63 actually goes down) assessment fee for all major medical insurance plans covering approximately 190 million people who have employer and individual health plans.
How Much and For Whom?
The assessed amount is for $25 billion. The bulk of the $25 billion will go into a Health and Human Service Administration fund to give a “cushion” to health insurance companies who will have to cover uninsured people who already have medical problems and issues that are not being covered today. Beginning in 2014, no insurer will be able to turn away sick people or people who have previous or existing chronic diseases – one of the major reasons for instituting the Affordable Healthcare Act. People with diabetes or Crohn’s Disease or epilepsy or a hundred or more congenital defects and chronic conditions who cannot afford decent health care because they cannot afford even the least expensive health care plan today will be able to afford to stay well at prices they or their employer can afford. This will enable millions of Americans to actually get regular healthcare versus using emergency rooms as their clinics —many of whom cannot and do not pay those bills, which is presently costing hospitals billions of dollars in uncollected fees and in turn is costing everyone more for medical premiums and expenses—even for those with medical insurance coverage today.
The “Long and Short” Story
Basically it comes down to this: $25 billion is for coverage to those who are uninsured. Five billion of the total amount will go to the US Treasury to offset the cost of employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees. The entire amount is expected to cost $700 billion over a 10-year period. Folks making more than $200,000 per year (or couples making more than $250,000 a year) will pay higher Medicare taxes starting next year. The same group will also be paying 3.8 percent more on their investment income(s). Is it fair? Frankly, I don’t really see why not. I’m not wild about paying 22 percent on what I make every year—and believe me, it is substantially less than $200,000 per year. But I pay it. So do you. I feel it just as most of you and as a self-employed person I see every dime that leaves my income and goes back to the governments I pay my “fair share” to, both the Feds and the state of Minnesota. Do I want our city, state and federal governments to cut back and lower my taxes? Well, of course I do. But the reality is, so long as we have millions of people who cannot afford to live–some even substandard lives—due to unemployment, due to illness (mental as well as physical), as long as we have government-built and maintained roads, bridges, flood diversion channels, wars we cannot afford and government-run agencies (many the majority of society isn’t even aware we have) invested in our daily lives, there will always be taxes. That’s life in America. And if you think it isn’t fair here, go live in Canada or England or South America, where they have many of the same freedoms and living choices we do, yet do not have the same quality in many areas of modern life as we know it in the United States.
Think about it. Sixty-three dollars per person, per year with a pre-existing medical condition. Sixty-three dollars. I bet half the teenagers today wearing jeans with whatever “du jour” brand name label on their butts laid down more than $63 for a pair. And when mom and dad went to buy the same kid new tennis shoes for basketball, soccer, or track I know they paid more than $63. And I won’t even mention hockey. Some want to say it will bankrupt some companies who have hundreds of employees. Why? You can’t seriously believe those same companies won’t devise an “exchange” of some sort, ultimately placing the cost back on the employees. But even if they do—it isn’t your child’s inheritance they are taking. It’s barely a drop in the proverbial bucket! It’s $63 lousy dollars per person, per year!
We all need to stop and think about what everything we claim to need or “have to have” costs before we complain about the cost of what it means to simply stay healthy and alive. We live in a world of techy wizards with gimmicks and prizes that we all buy into with a fever and pant wildly when the next “new” whatever hits the streets. Never mind your “old” smart phone, Nook, computer, 40-inch television or whatever is less than a year old and works perfectly fine. Yet when it comes time to attend to our health, we are not willing to sacrifice any more than we have to, neglecting to acknowledge that health care treatments that involve blood work, MRIs, CAT scans, ultrasounds, EEGs and EKGs, cancer treatments such as radiation and chemo – just to name a few basics – all cost an enormous amount of money.
As someone who also makes a living serving legal documents, including home foreclosure papers, I have seen people lose their homes because of medical bills that were so insurmountable it would take literally years to get out from underneath. We cannot have it both ways. We cannot live in a democratic or “fair” society that is willing to accept the life outcomes of ourselves, our neighbors, friends and family if or when the outcome is being determined solely on whether a person can afford the “fix” they require to become a healthy, functioning person again.
Consider what our country would be today had our government not decided everyone needed and would be required to get a minimum education by mandating no one could drop out until age 16. I wonder if the taxpayers belly-ached the same way about education for their children and their neighbors’ children when their taxes were raised in order to pay for teachers and one-room school houses a hundred years ago?
God forbid we should all share in the cost of keeping each other well and functional.
“Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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