Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Health Care Universally Good or Bad, is the hype real

Health Care is both good and bad depending on who you are speaking to or about. I would tend to think, if you currently have health insurance you feel Universal Health Care is bad because the cost of your insurance will increase. If you do not have health insurance or are having a difficult time paying for health insurance, Universal health care is good. I myself fall into the group of people who are concerned that health cost are going to increase.

Knowing some of the facts of the  plan may allow us to determine how the plan may help us. First, I will review the projected cost. As health care is phased in, a surtax will be assessed against the wealthiest Americans making over $500,000 per year. The surtax will be 5.4% income tax for individuals in this tax bracket.  The surtax will be eventually charged to a greater percentage of the American population.

For many people including the wealthy, any new taxes are bad news.  One solution is to get rid of the surtax and find additional ways to fund health care including a carbon tax. A carbon tax is an environmental tax on emissions of CO2.

There has been confusion on how employee base health care would be managed in relation to health care exchanges.  In economic theory,  both employee based health care and exchanges would compete to get insurance coverage, resulting in greater competition; therefore, lowing cost. It is true that both health care coverages are subsidized (employer / government) currently at the tune of 200 billion per year.

Some of the major issues with the health care bill are related to health exchanges. Health exchanges allow for individuals to pool resources to shop for insurance coverage. The exchanges purpose is to make insurance affordable to individuals and small business including a public plan. The regulations related to exchange plans are very strict and limit individual choice. These restrictions seem to benefit the insurance companies in regards to require the purchase of more expensive plans. There should be a push to allow insurers to cut prices if they can offer a more attractive package.

Some forced coverages can have a negative affect on small and medium size businesses. The health care bill required business with payrolls in excess of $500,000 to purchase health insurance for their workers of face a  $2,000 per worker fine. Since most employees have to purchase their own insurance, in most cases with help form their employer, this fine is very steep.

Regardless of what party you belong to,  the plan is workable and helps more than it hinders people.  All of the hysteria in the media and within the GOP is way blown out of proportion. The health care legislation can be used to strengthen the country and the American people as opposed to destroying the country as some have said.

Even some GOP supporters have said, it time for the republicans to get real and move forward. I feell reasonably comfortable the Health Care bill is good for the country!

1 comment:

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