FACT CHECK NO. 6: Paying for Health Care Reform Without Adding to the Deficit?
EmailABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Americans support health care reform, but they don’t generally support higher taxes. So it was important when President Obama said he could offer health care reform without adding to the deficit. It will be a hard promise to deliver on. The price tag for health care reform, pegged at between $1.3 and $1.6 trillion for several proposals on Capitol Hill, will need revenue to pay for it without adding to the deficit. There is no consensus on how to pay for health care reform. President Obama has said he wants to pay for reform by lowering the percentage of their tax returns the wealthy can deduct. Essentially, this would raise taxes on the rich. But even many Democrats on Capitol Hill don’t want to change those rules. It could have unintended consequences on donations to charities, the subject of many deductions for the wealthy. Moderates and some conservatives want to pay for health care reform by taxing health care benefits. Look at it this way: An worker is paid two ways – One, they get a salary, which is taxed. Two, they get benefits, which currently are not. One way to pay for health care reform would be to tax those benefits. This would raise taxes on everybody who pays taxes and could raise more than enough money to pay for health care. Candidate Obama promised throughout 2008 not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year. The sticky question comes when determining who should pay taxes on their health care benefits. Not everyone. One idea on Capitol Hill is to tax benefits for people whose benefits is worth ten percent more than what federal workers get. Another way to raise revenue would be to penalize companies that do not currently offer benefits. One riff on this idea would be to levy a sort of tax on companies whose employees qualify for Medicaid. These issues have stalled members of the Senate Finance Committee, who have been wrangling for weeks in closed-door negotiations as they strive for a bipartisan formula to pay for reform.
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IS NO ONE DOING THE MATH. 40 MILLION PEOPLE WITH OUT HEALTH CARE. MOST EMPLOYERS PAY 6-8 K PER YEAR. 8K TIMES 40 MLLION=4 BILLION… 1.8 TRILLION? GET THE GOVERNMENT AND THIER $800 TOILET SEAT OUT OF THE HEALTH CARE.
Posted by: GARY OLSON | June 24, 2009, 11:53 pm 11:53 pm
The comments about medicare and medicaid driving all the deficit in huge amounts. I work in healthcare and I see the abuse of the system by large numbers of people and sometimes physicians. Why isn’t there more thought into how we can get a lot of these people off of these programs? I see people that say they have depression and are on medicare, that’s it. Yes, depression can be serious but I’ve seen a lot of people w/only that. Or the welfare programs that do not have goals in mind to get people in the direction of getting them off the plan. They aren’t educated and pushed to make plans to get off. Our society has become a gimmee, I don’t care if I work society. No shame in not supporting your family they would rather lay around and collect the checks b’cuz it is easier than doing work.
Posted by: L.S. | June 25, 2009, 12:30 am 12:30 am
Obama is right! hands down.
Posted by: Stanley | June 25, 2009, 4:25 am 4:25 am
Without government owned and operated facilities substantial cost reductions are not possible for health care reform.
Government needs to become the basic necessities no frills provider of health care and it will become private insurance and care provider’s jobs to define and attract clients who will pay for their valuable services in a new public or private option care system where no government money is spent in private systems.
The cheapest way to collect money to pay for health care is through a national sales tax, and not by forcing people and companies to purchase questionable insurance to pay the excessive costs for services in a failed system.
The cheapest, most efficient, best outcome producing, delivery system would be through government owned and operated hospitals and clinics that would deliver all government funded health care and medications free to everyone choosing to use government care, no restrictions period.
Businesses that choose public care for their employees would have no financial obligations or any other responsibilities concerning health care.
Ask OMB; how many hundreds of billions of dollars this dual choice, public or private system would save the United States Government annually compared to any other reform proposals and ask what stimulus would be provided for the US economy if the financial burdens of paying for health care were eliminated for individuals and businesses?
Posted by: Bill Watson | June 25, 2009, 7:19 am 7:19 am
GARY OLSON wrote: “IS NO ONE DOING THE MATH. 40 MILLION PEOPLE WITH OUT HEALTH CARE. MOST EMPLOYERS PAY 6-8 K PER YEAR. 8K TIMES 40 MLLION=4 BILLION… 1.8 TRILLION? GET THE GOVERNMENT AND THIER $800 TOILET SEAT OUT OF THE HEALTH CARE.”
Your math is way off. $8000 x 40,000,000 = $320,000,000 billion. Also, not that the $1.8 trillion is for 10 years, not one. So, $8K x 40M x 10 years = $4.2 trillion.
Currently, part of that $8000/yr companies pay is because hospitals, doctors, etc. have to charge extra to make up for uninsured who don’t pay. The head of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was on TV a few months ago and he said Hopkins alone has something like $21 million per MONTH in unpaid bills. So, he said, everyone else’s bill is higher to make up for it.
Additionally, you now have uninsured people going to expensive emergency rooms for mild athsma, colds, etc. instead of cheaper doctors because the emergency rooms can’t turn them away. Paying for that eventually finds it’s way into your private company health insurance premium.
On top of that, there are local taxes that currently go to free clinics, etc.
That $1.8 trillion/10 years will cause reductions in premiums, local taxes, etc. Certainly not to the tune of $180B per year, but in the long run it may more than pay form itself by catching illnesses earlier.
Posted by: The_Mick | June 25, 2009, 9:23 am 9:23 am
Stanley, how’s the Cool Aid? What is Obama right about? He never answered a question and never explained his funding plan. Maybe everyone should look to other countries taht attempted this concept to see how they are doing. The truth is that those that are currently PAYING for their own health care plans will have to pay for the Governemnet plan and then go out and BUY their new private plan that will cover the care that is really needed. Take a look at the UK, Sweden, German, FRANCE debacle. Ugh. This man is simply arrogent and irresponsible.
Posted by: bobsopinion | June 25, 2009, 10:30 am 10:30 am