Unbelievable! He doesn’t get it. This is what the C student from Yale doesn’t get:
Health Insurance DOES NOT EQUAL Health Care
His Plan make some “generous” employer provided plans taxable and allow those who have to pay for their own insurance tax deductible.
(I cross posted this diary on the Daily Kos, OrangClouds115 asked me to join your site here and cross post). I’m glad to help…if it helps.
I’m new to your community, but not to kos, please forgive me, if my language is a little more direct than you are used to.
I don’t know how his plan is going to decrease the number of uninsured from 46 million to what – 33 million? Most people need the cash now to pay their bills. Giving a tax break of 15 cents on the dollar isn’t going to get these people enrolled in health insurance programs. Why do I say that?
The uninsured (73%) are largely people who are in the 15% tax bracket. This is according to an HHS report – this is a department under George Bush’s authority. Can’t the boy can’t read! Here’s a snippet from the report:
That the uninsured are concentrated among lower-income individuals is not surprising, given that low-income individuals are less likely to:
• be working, and if they do work they are less likely to be working full time,
• receive an offer of insurance, and
• be able to afford an offer of coverage.
This means their pay check is a maximum of about $580 per week. If they are a single parent with a child, their health insurance costs are about $800 per month. I don’t see where making the cost tax deductible is going to help one iota.
So who is Bush targeting? The remaining 27%. The same report continues:
While the income distribution of the uninsured is skewed toward those with lower incomes, Figure 2 shows 27% of the uninsured have incomes above 300% of poverty, with one-in-ten (11%) uninsured above 500% FPL.(4) That the uninsured comprise non-trivial percentages of middle and upper income individuals is surprising.
Here’s the poverty thresholds for 2004.
These are actual dollars. A family of four all under 65 years of age has an average weighted poverty threshold of $19,307 annual income (I used the first column on the chart, the average, they used a less expensive state). Make more than that and you aren’t living in poverty (according to the government anyway). 300% of this figure is $57,921 (again, 3 x the average); which will leave the family in the 15% tax bracket after deductions, exemptions and child tax credits. The cost of insurance (medical, dental and vision care forget about nursing home care rider) is over $1,100 per month for a family of four, if you can get it*. This will leave the family a little over $44,000 to pay their federal taxes, social security and Medicare taxes….Here’s the math
$ 19,307 x 3 = 2004 poverty threshold family of 4:
$ 57,921 300% of the 2004 poverty threshold for family of 4
– $8,109 taxes, Social Security, Medicare
– $13,200 Health Insurance (for a year)
_________
$36,612 What’s left to pay mortgage/rent, transportation,
food, car and home insurance =
*This plan will still require the mother to pay a $100 copay for a mammogram, the HPV vaccine is likely to be a non-covered item for their teenage daughter ($500) and the drug co-pay for name brand drugs is likely to be $50. The Dad and son are more likely to seek care in an ED for a multitude of reasons and that co-pay will be $100-$150 plus drugs.
Even if his plan is successful, the most he can do is reduce the rolls of the uninsured by 27%. That still leaves 33.5 million uninsured people.
Even if he is successful and gets these people into insurance plans, how is he going to get them to be able to use them? If you are paying for insurance, then you might not be able to pay the co-pay to see a physician or go to the ED! “Uh, I just paid the $1,100 monthly insurance bill. I don’t have the $30 copay to see the cardiologist or the $50 to get the prescription filled.”
Health Insurance DOES NOT EQUAL Health Care
I think this is another government sponsored/attempt at “feel good” legislation. It will look like he’s doing something, but the plan is faulty. It will still leave over 33.5 million without health insurance and no way for those pushed into the plans to use them.
What is George Bush thinking!?!