Posted on 10/23/2008 2:44:38 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Jeff Jacoby's op-ed in The Boston Sunday Globe, "Healthcare shouldn't be linked to employment," should be required reading for every voter before Election Day. In terms everyone can understand, he walks readers through the history of health insurance and explains Sen. John McCain's reforms better than the candidate does.
Mr. Jacoby's main point: "De-linking medical insurance from employment is the key to reforming healthcare." The coupling began through a quirk in the U.S. tax code. Federal wage controls during World War II barred employers from increasing workers' wages, but the controls did not extend to fringe benefits. So companies began offering what today would be considered catastrophic health insurance. Before long, the tax-free status of those benefits was enshrined in the code, and employers began to offer far more comprehensive coverage.
Today, more than 90 percent of private healthcare plans are obtained through employers. It might seem "unnatural to get health insurance any other way," Mr. Jacoby wrote. "But what's unnatural is the link between healthcare and employment. After all, we don't rely on employers for auto, homeowners or life insurance. Those policies we buy in an open market, where numerous insurers and agents compete for our business." But third-party insurance has led to "skyrocketing premiums, lack of insur- ance portability, widespread ignorance of medical prices, and overconsumption of health services. ... (Quick quiz: What does your local hospital charge for an MRI scan? To deliver a baby? To set a broken arm?)"
The McCain plan eliminates the tax deduction on health insurance, but provides a $5,000 refundable tax credit to give Americans "a strong inducement to buy their own, more affordable (and portable) insurance plan." Once consumers begin focusing on the cost of healthcare, competition will flourish, and prices of healthcare and heath insurance will fall.
Sen. Obama, on the other hand, proposes socialism, which experience has shown time and again only makes healthcare scarcer and more expensive while reducing the quality of care. By coming to America to get healthcare, Canadians every day vote with their feet and wallets against "free healthcare" in their country.
On the contrary, Mr. Jacoby wrote, "An end to employer-based health insurance is exactly what the American healthcare market needs. Far from being a calamity, it would represent a giant step toward ending the current system's worst distortions."
I flunk that "quick quiz". I went into the hospital on August 7th and had two gall bladder surgeries and have received no bill yet from the hospital and probably won't since my insurance covered it all.
(Yes, I did have two gall bladder surgeries.)
I’m not so crazy about this plan. You have to focus on supply, not demand. I do like allowing people to buy out of state insurance.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
What a wonderful thing to be able to own one’s own health plan and not be dependent upon the paternalism of either corporate or governmental America (or a blend: Obama’s Marxist/fascist Amerika).
“The McCain plan eliminates the tax deduction on health insurance, but provides a $5,000 refundable tax credit”
Question, who receives the tax deduction on health insurance?” Employer or the employee?
If the employers do not receive the tax deductions, will that mean more money coming to the treasury?
Somebody explain!
“...To deliver a baby?...”
Two months ago:
My wife spent 2-hours in labor...and an overnight stay in the hospital (no complications at all)= $4000.00 out of my pocket.
PING FOR LATER
Not sure, but I think I heard that it goes to the individual. The credit is roughly equivalent to about $15,000 deduction for someone in the 30% tax bracket.
If health benefits are included in taxable salary, then the amount of money paid by employer and employees through payroll taxes (ie social security) will be increased.
“(Yes, I did have two gall bladder surgeries.)”
Well, you DO have a lot of GALL, LOL! Just kiddin’! ((Greybeard58))
So, IMHO, I think we need to burn this mother to the ground, and everyone takes out a CATASTROPHIC policy and when they get the ‘sniffles’ or need a few stitches, they pay for it from their OWN pocket and stay the hell out of MINE!
Well, you can look at it this way...it’s money well spent because a baby changes your life in so many WONDERFUL ways.
I’ve raised THREE of them...and they DON’T get any cheaper, so that $4K is the first DROP in the bucket. :)
(If your wife proves to have such ease at having babies, consider a midwife next time and have the baby at home.)
gosh, since there is only gall bladder organ in your body- what did they screw up the first time???
I wrote incorrectly that I had two gall bladder surgeries. The first surgery was of the micro variety to remove the gall bladder, in the process of removing it the surgeon nicked my liver in three places, which he assumed would stop bleeding on its own. It did not, when my B/P got down to 52/26 after a few hours, he went back in with the big gash surgery to repair my liver.
My gall bladder had attached itself to the liver, which I have since learned is not uncommon, nor is it uncommon to nick the liver in the process. What was uncommon was that it didn’t stop bleeding on its own.
Alls well that ends well. I lost 15 pounds and I stopped smoking the day I went in and so far haven’t started again and that’s after 50 plus years of smoking cigarettes. I feel great!
I agree with the premise of Jacoby’s argument. Not only does no one know how much a hospital charges to set a broken bone, but most have no idea how much their employer provided health insurance policy costs, unless they lose their job and see how much COBRA costs.
“I do like allowing people to buy out of state insurance.”
Why?
more choices. it is very hard to get individual insurance here in NY.
Ignore my last question, I misread your comment.
Yes, I agree. I misread your first comment. I initially thought you were arguing against interstate commerce when it comes to medical insurance.
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