Posted on 12/24/2014 6:05:50 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin campaigned on socialist medicine. He promised to turn Vermont into a socialist paradise, complete with “free” healthcare for all. Last week he announced that socialist medicine was too expensive for Vermont. Not even Johnathan Gruber could save the single payer dreams of Vermont socialists. The fact is socialist single payer is too expensive for the people of Vermont. The state has an annual budget of $2.7 billion. Socialist single payer would have added $1.6-2.5 billion to the budget with the latter end of projections more likely. Doubling state expenditures means doubling taxes, with an 8% income tax not out of the question. Vermont passed on socialist single payer because it’s too expensive.
If Vermont cannot come up with the money to pay for socialist single payer, how can the rest of the country? The clear goal of Obamacare is single payer socialism, it’s entire purpose is to lead the country to that point. Obamacare itself is already extremely expensive for taxpayers, businesses and individuals. While the government is wasting money on television advertisements touting all the subsidies available under Obamacare, someone is stuck paying for those subsidies. Meanwhile insurance premiums are up substantially, as are deductibles. In other words, Obamacare is offering less coverage at a greater cost. Make no mistake, if your deductible has increased your healthcare coverage has decreased as your policy covers less of your healthcare costs. It doesn’t matter how many services or procedures your policy covers, if you’re paying for it out of pocket you have less insurance coverage.
The tax increases are just beginning. The Obamacare individual mandate tax was only $95 in 2014. In 2015 it bumps up to $325, in 2016 to $695. Under socialist single payer, you could be looking at taxes equaling 10% of income or more. This would make the individual mandate tax look paltry in comparison. The fact is our country cannot afford single payer. Not only is single payer a hit in the pocketbook, there’s absolutely no evidence that it provides better coverage. In fact, the best hospitals and doctors are largely located in the United States. There’s a reason for that, they operate without abundant government control. Yes, there is far too much control over the healthcare sector in this country with or without Obamacare. However doctors and hospitals in the United States are private and free. In Great Britian they’re owned and controlled by the state, in Canada and much of Western Europe they’re privately owned but utterly controlled by government actions.
The cost of socialist medicine in terms of freedom is high. Waiting times in Canada are extremely high. It is true you can easily see a doctor for a physical or for a simple illness such as a flu. However if you need a specialist or a basic diagnostic test like a MRI or CT, you’ll be on the waiting list for days, weeks or months. Great Britain isn’t any better. The left loves to point at life expectancy as evidence of socialist Europe having better healthcare. However when homicide and motor vehicle deaths are taken out of the equation (both are significantly higher in the US) American life expectancy is the longest in the world. In addition, the left never wants to talk about other factors such as lifestyle and how that affects life expectancy. At least they don’t want to talk about it in relation to healthcare. They’ll be happy to tax potato chips though.
Vermont is one of the most liberal states in the union. They continually elect socialists to serve in the US Senate. Yet even Vermont cannot overcome the sheer cost of socialist medicine in their state. Nearly doubling the state budget isn’t in the political cards, not even in liberal Vermont. Obamacare is giving all of us a glimpse of what the future of socialist medicine will look like. It’s big, it’s expensive and it’s inefficient. We can look to Canada and western Europe and see that it’s fraught with waiting lists and limited access. It also doesn’t produce results, the best hospitals and doctors aren’t working in countries with socialist medicine. Of course when it comes to American demands for either Obamacare or single payer it doesn’t come down to service. It comes down to power and control. We can only pray that the political costs of socialist medicine outweigh the desire of socialists to control us.
I also wonder what the words "per capita" and "median" mean.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I always enjoy when LIBs/DIMs admit they are idiots. Have a Merry Christmas!
I’d bet it’s a holdup for Federal Money to cure that problem.
Why would anyone live there? Weather
Beautiful Beaches
Bernie Saunders?
People are finally figuring socialism (and liberalsim / progressivism) and reality are on two different planes of existence...
I think it's to get away from the riff-raff.
Laugh it up, fuzzball. It’s your pockets that are going to get picked to bail them out.
That's the minimum. In most cases it will be 1% of the household income in 2014, 2% in 2015 and 2.5% in 2016. So for someone with the national median income of $52,000 the fine/fee/penalty/tax (check with Chief Justice Roberts for today's characterization) will be $520, $1040 and $1300 rather than the much lower amounts typically cited in the news.
ObamaCare is the perfect example of crony capitalism.
Government mandated, unaffordable, garbage, coverage, and an insurance industry covered by taxpayers for losses with a captive consumer base forced to buy their product.
In 2012:
Per Capita: VT: $42,994 US: $42,693
Median: VT: $52,977 US: $51,371
This is not a “poor” state and it can’t afford free healthcare.
>>I’d bet it’s a holdup for Federal Money to cure that problem.
As they say in Vermont: “Ayup.”
“fuzzball”? Such personal insults are uncalled for...especially in Christmas season. Say...is your inner LIBeral self showing? Shouldn’t you be posting at DU? Have a Merry Christmas. Oh, yes. My pockets won’t be picked. I’m retired and have minimized my tax exposure very well, thank you. I laugh at all you LIBs.
This really is the beginning of the end of the liberal dream.
Obama’s road to Utopia is a scam suckers whine.
'Course the median age is probably something like 80, so there's the answer right there. Too many rickety old blue hairs running around and not enough young bucks and does to pay for their Viagra and sex change procedures.
The *cough* tax is still far cheaper than the average annual premium. Heck some people pay more MONTHLY than the tax.
And since it is a tax, why can't Congress simply cut the tax rate to one penny?
“Government mandated, unaffordable, garbage, coverage, and an insurance industry covered by taxpayers for losses with a captive consumer base forced to buy their product.”
Pretty much sums it up.
That would be a creative way to defund it!
Heh, heh. A little tightly wound this morning, are we?
That was just a little Star Wars reference there.
But, being retired, you're probably too old to understand Star Wars references. Hmmmm. I'll try to think of something from the days before "talkies" that you might relate to.
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