When Obamacare is gone, something has to take its place. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, and something needs to be done to stop that. A big chunk of the reason I believe is fraud. The latest ring of fraudsters scamming Medicare was huge - and proves that the fraud problem is more pernicious and widespread than anyone wants to believe.
The repatriation issue should be coupled with a choice for management: they can retain the earnings, with taxation, or they can issue dividends at greatly reduced taxation. I’d like to see dividends issued, as it would offset the idiocy at the Fed for fixed income investors.
In general, I’d like to see dividends taxed at a low, fixed rate for all income brackets. Cash dividends are a very useful thing in investing.
If I had my way, we would go back to "hospitalization" insurance, for catastrophic medical problems, and return routine to paying medical expenses out of pocket. This is the basis of High Deductible plans with HSAs.
The repatriation issue should be tied to dividends. If a company has $10M in overseas profit, and they can build an engineering center in Bangalore or pay it out in dividends, they will try to grow the company by building the engineering center in Bangalore. But if they have the choice of building an engineering center in Bangalore or RTP, they may pick RTP.
Please read the following articles:
Kneale: Cisco’s Stimulus Plan Won’t Cost You One Dollar
James S. Tisch: Andy Stern Sees the Light on Overseas Profits
I agree we need to get companies back to paying dividends. But I would rather that be done by reducing overall corporate income taxes. I fear if the government tries to engineer corporate behavior, it will fail.
Well, for starters, we can go back to what we had pre-obamacare. As for costs, remember that insurance now covers a lot more than it used to. We have some states that mandate additional coverage and additional coverage costs additional money. We also have an out-of-control tort system that not only has drastically increased the cost of malpractice insurance, but has also caused doctors to practice "defensive" medicine. Meaning, they're doing additional, often unnecessary testing and treatments solely to avoid being sued. These activities and costs are passed on to the customer as any business expense would.
"Gas, grass, or a%% - no free rides here" - that's what the sign on my friend's van said back in the 1970's. And while many here would not agree with the means of payment, one could certainly agree with the premise that nobody gets a free ride. A variant of that sign needs to stand proudly at the emergency entrance of every hospital. We all pay when an illegal immigrant gets free medical care, either through taxes or through additional rates and fees charged to the paying customers. We all pay when a deadbeat, unemployable, crackhead democrat shows up at the hospital for a free detox program. We all pay for the delivery of those "anchor babies" that some seem to want to protect. We need to stop the practice of placing the burden of one person's expenses upon another. Get rid of the non-paying customers and the cost of providing care would drop significantly.
I'm not saying that doctors who feel so inclined shouldn't be allowed to give a freebie to others. After all, charity is to be encouraged. What I'm saying is that the concept that others must be compelled to pay for someone's health care is nothing short of slavery.
An analogy: If you go to the store to buy a gallon of milk, it's $3 regardless of whether you have $100, $10, or $0 in your pocket. If you don't have the $3, you don't get the milk. The idea that the person with $100 should be forced, through taxation or otherwise, to buy milk for the person with $0 is preposterous. The person with $0 should improve their own situation until they have sufficient skills to earn what they need to buy the milk. If they choose not to do that, they don't get the milk.
Health care costs are spiraling precisely because of government programs. Get rid of the governement programs and let the market determine what costs are accurate and I think you'll see them come back down.
Most companies want socialized medicine for the simple reason that they can not afford to insure older workers. It is a major cost for the company I work for, and one that influences hiring (also something few here want to admit).
If you are over 50 and out of work, you are in trouble. The cost of hiring an older worker is to high for most companies in days like these.