Apprentice2Jesus

Healthcare (non)Reform

This is yet another gripe on healthcare (non)reform.

Let us review so I can properly tick off my conservative AND liberal friends:

1. I am not for repealing healthcare reform back to what we have. What have is lousy. If you need examples, I am a living one. So are other members of my family. Don’t get me started!

2. I am FOR working harder to accomplish something far better than what is about to go into play.

3. I am NOT for universal healthcare. Not single payer. The examples in Europe that everyone touts are not the panacea we make them out to be. (For instance, in Germany just the healthcare portion of their income tax is 15% per person. That is what Merkel is proposing to help pay for a system that is being crushed by deficit spending. Add other income tax on top of that and it’s a disaster.)

But what gets my blood boiling today is seeing how bigger companies are beginning to respond to the current (non)reform and what that will mean for me and my family.

I have a friend who works at a major corporation. They are switching all of their healthcare options to HSAs next year. Why? Because the (non)reform plan is going to tax the “cadillac” plans. 3M is going to change how they give benefits to their retirees.

More companies will be making the same moves.

Why? Because they don’t want to fork over the taxes and there is no need to make them. They are big enough to shift the game.

I am NOT saying we tax the major corporations anyway. I am attempting to point out a major flaw in the current (non)reform plan. It’s this: When you try to tax one part of the plan to pay for another part of the plan it blows up. You can’t tie your revenue source to a part of your plan you want people to NOT be involved in! Why does the government keep trying this?!?!

In my city we have a great bus system. Yet, during the time when gas prices were $4 a gallon they lost money while ridership was up. Why? Because their main source of revenue is tied to the gas tax. So here is a system that is trying to get people off the road, but their main revenue stream depends on people being ON the road. Go figure.

So, let’s review.

The healthcare (non)reforms wants everyone in. To do that they are going to form these “exchanges” so they can come up with “affordable” plans for people like me who can’t afford anything right now. How will they make it affordable? They will subsidize it. How will they subsidize it? By taxing “cadillac” plans that major corporations use for their employees.

EXCEPT… the major corporations are now figuring ways to dump major portions of those “cadillac” plans. The result? I still won’t find an affordable plan and I will be FORCED into a system that will cost me MORE money!

So, what are Republicans running on this fall? They promise to repeal the current plan. Their plan? The mantra of “We have the best healthcare system in the world.”

Democrats are trying to tout how good this plan is.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… I’m working a full time gig, two part-time gigs, with my wife working part-time, and no place to find affordable health insurance. And I’m “middle class.” Oh, and I live in a state that is about to elect a governor who’s only plan for raising revenue is raising income taxes.

Let the good times roll!