Are You Willing To Pay For Someone Else’s Health Insurance?
Are you like me… one of the reasons I went back to work after retiring was to acquire health insurance. I’m a long way from Medicare. Or do you work at a specific employer solely because health insurance is available?
I even took a job with an employer that doesn’t pay as good a wage as others of the same category because they offer it and the others don’t.
Part of the Administration’s plan to fund Health Care Reform has had the idea tossed out that the portion of health insurance premiums paid by your employer that are currently non-taxable to you become subject to tax. At the same time a possible tax credit or minimum income before you are required to pay for what may be National Health Insurance.
Currently the employers share is non-taxable… and that also includes Social Security Tax which I’m sure most people are not aware of … not just Income tax.
It would amount to a windfall for the Social Security Administration but that is being REALLY ignored by Washington in the hopes of it slipping past everyone.
Employers will get hit with the additional 7.5% matching that they have to pay as well which will increase their total cost… maybe even make them consider not offering health insurance anymore or if they do be more stingy with raises and other benefits.
So let’s say you have your partner on your policy from work and it runs you $500 a month with your employer’s share coming in at 50%… that’s $250 a month, $3000 a year… tax-free to you… no income tax, state or federal… no Social Security… no nothing.
You’re in the 25% bracket… maybe the extra three grand pushes you to the 36% bracket… plus 7.5% for Social Security… you get an tax bill for around $1300… another $25 a week out of your paycheck.
And let’s not forget how this may affect Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s)… people went to them so they could afford health insurance… will this cause them to have to give it up and go back to heading to the emergency room and the taxpayer dime for an asthma attack because they don’t have money to go to the doctor?
So we’re at a point of again possibly making the haves pay for the have-nots… just as in the case of the current banker bailout… all the responsible people are having to pay for the irresponsible.
I have a mixed feelings on the health care thing though… I know we need to do something and probably a National Health System like other countries use might be best with everyone having to pay similar to social security… but taxing only part of the workforce in order to pay for everyone in it is wrong.
Tell me would you be willing to pay more in taxes just because your employer has health insurance you can buy?
Do you work at a particular company that is not your first choice as an employer solely because they have company provided health insurance?
Are you willing to have those benefits taxed in order to provide health insurance to everyone?
Photo credit: stock.xchng.
“So we’re at a point of again possibly making the haves pay for the have-nots… just as in the case of the current banker bailout… all the responsible people are having to pay for the irresponsible.”
Seriously this is…I don’t even have the words to describe it. People are not uninsured because they are irresponsible. They are uninsured because their company doesn’t offer health insurance and they can’t afford to buy it on their own. Some folks work for themselves and can not make enough to buy their own. Some folks work for companies that deliberately keep their employees below 36 hours so they don’t have to provide health insurance.
This post is very disturbing.
Or they’re uninsured because they’re gay or trans, and it’s legal for employers to refuse to hire them. So they start their own business, but they can’t afford a $500 or $1000 a month premium for themselves. (the premium for me in a group plan would be about $500 at this point… since I have medical conditions, odds are excellent that I simply cannot buy insurance on the private market.)
This is a really shortsighted argument that is directly aimed *against* minorities.
Government needs to get out of healthcare. We’re screwed enough already. Amazing that it took less than ten pots for the race card to be dragged out.
As a healthcare provider, I can say the system is not just broken it is beyond repair! We need to tear it down, kick out the insurance industry (and their lobbyists) and start over.
I have no problem taking a percentage equal to what I use for social securty. Though I’m 29 and will never see a dime of it, I feel we have a responsibility to care for our parents. But this stands clear, the money taken from my paycheck must be used for the healthcare and not “borrowed” by the gov’t to pay for something else. It is time for one generation to step up and fix the problem. We won’t see social security and this is a disturbing truth. It is time for us to suck it up and demand that the money our country has “found” to spend for war and earmarks and bailouts should be used for the good of all her citizens. I don’t mind being taxed when I know that the money is being used as intended and when I too can benefit. Besides, we already front the bill for those who don’t have insurance when they go to the ER and can’t pay the hospital.