McCain’s Health Care Plan: Warren Buffet To Get The Same Credit As You
McCain’s Health Care Plan: Warren Buffet To Get The Same Credit As You
An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal praises the equalizing quality of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) plan to give every family in America a $5,000 tax credit to buy health insurance in the individual insurance market:
The McCain plan does not raise taxes, nor does it lower them. Instead, it takes the existing system of tax subsidies and treats everyone alike, regardless of income or job status….For the first time, low- and moderate-income families would get just as much tax relief as the very rich when they purchase health insurance.
But treating “everyone alike” is exactly the problem. Indeed, under McCain’s plan the sick and the not-yet sick, the poor and the wealthy would all receive a one-size-fits-all tax credit, regardless of their health history or income status.
Warren Buffet would collect the same $5,000 as his secretary. A chronically ill older patient, who requires more care or more expensive care, would obtain the same amount for health care as a younger and healthier American.
For poorer Americans, McCain’s credit would be like a five foot rope for a ten foot hole. A $5,000 tax credit for a low income family is not enough to cover the average price of an insurance policy (approximately $14,000) and would leave many poor families — who are unable to make up the difference in premium costs — without insurance.
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5 Responses to “McCain’s Health Care Plan: Warren Buffet To Get The Same Credit As You”
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A tax credit isn’t insurance coverage. The problem is people not paying into the system. Some 30-40 million people don’t participate in financing healthcare in any meaningful way.
As the piece pointed out, tax credits don’t remove nonfinancial barriers to insurance coverage. It encourages our incomplete, highly segmented, massively profitable insurance market.
Texas has a law requiring drivers to have liability coverage. Twenty percent don’t comply, many cannot afford it. I expect something similar with the patchwork plans being offered. While McCain’s is worse. most facilitate the dumping of health insurance costs onto the American worker.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:56 pmTax credits don’t help the people who can’t afford insurance in the first place. You have to pay for the insurance first before you can deduct the tax at the end of the year. DOESN’T HELP!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pmThe competition to be associated with Warren Buffet has begun!
July 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pmYes, but how else do we cull out those from the heard who are too weak or to poor to deserve the right to live?
July 30th, 2008 at 2:32 pmbut by making employer paid health insurance premiums subject to income tax he IS raising taxes to the tune of $6-$9,000 additional earned income ($14,000 premium minus $5,000 tax credit)depending on the employers contribution towards the employee’s health care cost.
July 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm