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Originally Posted by Originalist
You didn't read the article.
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Did you? Just a couple points linger in my mind... I'll share them, but then I have to go. Maybe I'll touch base again tomorrow.
Fifth, change the tax code to encourage people to get private health savings accounts and instead of requiring or incentivizing companies to buy employees insurance, let taxpayers keep more of their own paychecks so they can shop for their own insurance plans.
This has nearly always been a disaster for the middle class. High deductible HSA plans sound great on paper. However, let's say you have a $4,000 deductible. That means that you have to essentially save up to $4,000 dollars in your HSA and spend it on approved medical treatments, procedures, and supplies BEFORE your insurance kicks in. It's like having no insurance at all for the first $4,000 dollars. And should a crisis hit you and you need to dip into your HSA (like a serious car repair) you'll have to pay taxes and a penalty to use your own money! That's windfall profit for the banks that provide the HSAs! Yep, they just found another way to gouge you a little more, and the conservatives and libertarians lined up for it like lambs to the slaughter. It also creates a tax filing nightmare because you have to keep and track EVERY purchase out of your HSA, or an audit will have you come up short and needing to pay taxes on something you shouldn't have had to pay taxes on. Also, history has shown that people with HSAs tend to NOT go for routine checkups and procedures because they don't have enough in their accounts to cover them. So it ultimately equals no coverage unless you have a catastrophic injury or illness that exceeds $4,000 (of course, the $4,000 WILL be billed to you).
Ah... but for the rich, these are AWESOME. They are tax shelters. If you're rich enough to pay for your medical expenses out of pocket you can turn around and dump thousands and thousands into one of these HSA accounts and avoid paying a significant amount of taxes.
So, unless you're rich, tattoo "Gouge Me" across your forehead. Because only an idiot would support HSAs.
Seventh, change Medicare from directly paying doctors to subsidizing insurance plans retirees choose themselves.
In other words, raid the public trust of Medicare and channel all that money to... corporate insurance providers! This will be a BIG TIME boost to the profit margins of the record profits of the insurance industry. CEO's will get BIG raises from this one. Meanwhile, they offer flimsy plans to seniors that don't cover as much as Medicare, because if comprehensive coverage it is too expensive for Medicare, you can bet your bottom dollar it will also be too expensive for insurance companies.
At the end of the day the public trust has been raided, corporations have gobbled up the funding, working families are paying penalties and hedging on their healthcare, and seniors are left out on the cold paying more for less.
The only part of this plan that I could swallow is maybe allowing people to purchase prescription drugs from other countries.
The rest is simply a corporate raid on the public trust and gimmicks to fool the uneducated.
Hybrid Mode
