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Posted on 04/16/2015 10:47:20 AM PDT by free_life
Every year since 2011, the White House has used tax time to post a "Federal Taxpayer Receipt" showing taxpayers how their federal tax dollars are being spent. President Obama introduced the concept in his 2011 State of the Union address, and Wednesday the White House posted the fifth installment so taxpayers can see how "tax dollars are being spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, and health care."
While users can punch in their own tax liability and see dollar amounts assigned to each category, the figures are based on percentages from the prior fiscal year budget. Comparing those percentages from year to year, taxpayers can see that from 2012 to 2014, the percentage of their taxes going towards federal healthcare expenses has jumped 22 percent.
Although the White House characterizes the Federal Taxpayer Receipts as a promise kept by President Obama to let taxpayers easily know where their tax dollars are going, the administration also used the opportunity to take a dig at Republicans, providing a link to "See how two starkly different tax plans would impact you" where viewers can read about the president's "tax cuts for the middle class" and the Republicans' "giveaways for the wealthy few." In the end, the White House doesn't just want taxpayers to know where their money is going, but where everyone else's is going, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Yes, if we could self select policies and or how far we want to go with our lives vs. living under the rules of Medicare/Medicaid, and yes I have personal experience with the ins and outs of those two tangentially recently.
Health Care Vouchers via Laurence Kotlikoff came to my attention here on FR recently, it still has a Govt component, but if you could truly buy it on the marketplace I'd say this is something to at least vet..
Very few; that is why it was mandated, and rightfully considered a tax by the Supreme Court.
More commonly referred to as Parasites.
The mob is the federal government.
Health care was affordable before the federal government began giving it away.
Yeah and probably 10% goes to fund the 1000s of new bureaucrats, IRS positions, and another army of dc lawyers to extort their share of our healthcare dollars.
Wrong.
Healthcare in America became a travesty when we allowed insurance to take over the industry.
Until recently, we were not forced to buy insurance. Now the lawyers control it all.
But healthcare has been broken for many years before Obamacare. Before insurance, people didn’t go bankrupt like they have since insurance. Last time I looked, the stats said 50% of bankruptcy was from medical costs.
If we hadn’t fallen off the cliff with healthcare costs, Obamacare would have never even been a thought.
Healthcare insurance costs have become absurd in this country. I pay a fortune at work for it, yet still have a big deductible and a large out of pocket line.
Make Congress have to live with the same healthcare coverage as the rest of us and it would be fixed in a week.
A couple of observations: we managed to populate the planet with a few billion people prior to modern healthcare. Second, hi tech healthcare costs hi tech dollars. If you want to stop the increasing costs, stop funding the NIH and hi tech medicine research. I suggest you look into the cost of equipment people demand often when their life is near an end. Look at the cost of educating a Dr. Everybody wants a piece of the industry and the lawyers have been extorting about 15% for quite some time. It is not a simple issue. Healthcare is not broken, but it is expensive, and please stop using the language of the politician lawyers to attack the industry.
We are in complete agreement on congress excluding themselves. In fact, all laws should apply to all people with no exceptions—that is what is broken.
One thing I forgot, if the government’s goal was to help people with healthcare, I offer them this idea—give every taxpayer a credit for all medical expenses. Think about it.
Don't forget that the low interest rates only apply to NEW issues of Treasury bonds.
There are 30-year Treasury bonds issued back in the 80's that are still paying over 8% dividends.
I agree with that point, but the fact that so many have been here before modern healthcare doesn’t mean anything.
Bottom line is that healthcare costs have skyrocketed since the insertion of insurance. We added a middle man, and as usually happens, the middle man makes the money for just being a middle man.
Side note: The price of a medical degree is absurd, but less absurd than the price of a B.A. The price of sending your kid to college is absurd and leads to longterm debt for everyone.
Here in NYC, NYU owns more real estate than just about anyone else, yet it’s a fortune to attend.
Until recently no one was forced to buy insurance. My Dad died in 1996 and never had a hint of health insurance his entire life. He invested the premiums he would have paid and did well. Too many people have succumbed to the marketing of insurance and some don’t think they can live without it. I chose not to buy it until I had family and my employer offered a deal.
You ignored all of my points about most other reasons for high costs. Any idea what equipment now costs to deliver hi-tech healthcare. I suggest you investigate. Even without insurance, healthcare costs would have been near as high.
Again, no one is forcing you to get a college degree. It is a personal choice and an investment. Are you expecting handouts or what? Living in NY I would think you would be more concerned about taxes, which is by far where most of the fruits of may labor are spent.
Your belief that my healthcare costs would be close to what they are now if there was no such thing as insurance makes no sense to me.
The way it works now is that a hospital charges you 5000 for work that really costs them 500. It’s all make believe money except for what comes out of my pocket.
People going bankrupt. Hospitals going out of business.
Who is turning the profit in this scenario?
Try pricing the equipment, malpractice considerations and coverage, lawyers raking 15 to 20% out of the industry, and defensive medicine set by the legal industry. Most people don’t have a clue. So tell me what you were charged $5000 for that really cost $500—I would be very interested to hear of this. I work with animals and we hear the same complaints about bills, albeit much lower. Again, no one forces you to go to a hospital, but you expect and demand the best and want these professionals to donate to your cause—that is simply not a realistic expectation.
As far as bankruptcy—when you have accumulated a mere $2000 of equity, bankruptcy is not far away. Hospitals go out of business because they can’t charge what it costs to operate. Apparently, not many are turning a profit. Do you have any idea what it costs to bring a single drug to market?
Yup. I pointed out to one of my Obamite coworkers how much the interest would be on the increased debt if it just returned to normal levels. At the time it was a rise from under $200Billion to service debt to around $800 Bilion...bam, right out of your precious social services...or just a death spiral of debt.
It’s been a while since government did not control health insurance though.
There’s been a continuous creep toward health insurance being a Pre-payment plan instead, with actual health insurance being slowly outlawed. In many states that happened a couple of decades ago.
Wrong.
Why doesn’t McDonald’s charge fifty dollars for one hamburger?
When economic forces are put in play the market tells you what you can charge for that burger.
The federal government began giving/paying for services (to buy votes) without regards to the market ex. Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPS, etc. etc.
Then you end up with ObamaCare, billions upon billions will be spent.
No downward pressure.
No free market, no downward pressure on prices we end up with prices spiraling out of control.
Obama made the insurance companies the boogie man, it seems to have worked with you.
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