IMPORTANT Point to Consider Re: McCain's "Health Care Plan"

[iceman66]

I hope everyone here already knows that McCain, for the first time ever, proposes to tax employer-provided health insurance as income. Obama has properly characterized this as a massive tax increase on the middle class.

McCain counters that any tax increase will be more than offset by a "tax credit" of up to $5,000.

It has already been pointed out that the alleged tax credit would be paid directly to the insurance company, rather than the taxpayer.

As McCain also favors more deregulation of the health insurance industry, it strikes me that this will do absolutely nothing to lower the price anyone pays for health insurance. Being profit-driven entities, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the insurance companies will not just write the $5k into their bottom line and increase premiums accordingly.

So we see that McCain's "health care plan" is not only a massive middle-class tax increase, but a HUGE giveaway to insurance companies - in other words a SCAM!!!

[AnotherMother4Peace]

1. 1) Why - is it a better deal? - NO! 2) Preexisting conditions come into play

3) Up to $5,000.00 tax credit - what a crock.

My family would be f****ked under this "plan" - Thanks but no thanks.

Excuse my French

[iceman66]

2. Yours and most other families!

[AnotherMother4Peace]

3. K&R - because this will be a big hit on all families who have employee provided health insurance. nt

[MadMaddie]

6. It would be a huge it on famlies that have employee provided

health insurance.

[sohndrsmith]

4. this is a good/useful read for analysis of the health care issue:

From the Economic Policy Institute: easy to understand (but I believe they are biased towards dem/liberal views, if not Obama specifically, so if that matters, keep it in mind). It makes sense to me... (maybe because I have a dem/liberal bias = grin = ).
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/pm126

==

Hopefully I'm missing something with the following:

One question I can't seem to find the answer for: In McCain's plan, he gives a tax credit of $2,500 for individuals (iirc) and $5,000 for families, right? Families are what, exactly...?

What - and how - does McCain define a "family"? :

----A 20-something healthy couple with high
salaries and a single healthy child?
----A married couple (one of whom is unemployed) with 6 kids and a dependent, disabled parent? Even with Medicare/Medicaid, there is the additional financial support of a family member, though not a minor child, who is dependent and living under one's care...
----Divorced parents who share 50/50-joint custody but reside in different states?
----What about an unmarried adult who supports his or her disabled/dependent parents or relatives? Would they be individuals or a family and how would that be determined?
----Etc.?

All I can find is the "$5,000" figure for anyone who is not an individual. Seems to me that if individuals get at $2,500 tax credit, and a "family", defined as anyone with one or more dependent children (from 1 to... ?) gets $5,000 - seems like anyone with a child would be at a disadvantage:

Individual: $2,500
2 non-married, childless individuals: $2,500 each ($5,000)

Family: $5,000, meaning - married couple with -
1 child: $1,667 per person
2 children: $1,250 per person
3 children: $1,000 per person
4 children: $833 per person

This couldn't be right... could it?

[me b zola]

5. McScam (n/t)

[iceman66]

7. It gets WORSE

check out this thread in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3529005