Wow what a liberal person he is. Here is what he said today during his radio address:
The problem with our current system is clear: health care costs are rising rapidly, more than twice as fast as wages. These rising costs are driving up the price of health insurance and making it harder for working families to afford coverage. These rising costs also make it harder for small businesses to offer health coverage to their employees. We must address these rising costs so that more Americans can afford basic private health insurance.
One of the most promising ways to make private coverage more affordable and accessible is to reform the tax code. Today, the tax code unfairly penalizes people who do not get health insurance through their job. If you buy health insurance on your own, you pay much more after taxes than if you get it through your job. I proposed to end this unfair bias in the tax code by creating a standard tax deduction for every American who has health insurance, whether they get it through their job or on their own.
So his answer is this new tax system. Ok that doesn’t sound bad, but what about putting reins on the insurance companies? Being self employed, I know something about this. An average policy for a single person starts off at about $50 a month. That comes with a nice $5,000 deductible also. That means you have to pay $5,600 out of pocket before the insurance does anything (and the generally you co-pay 20% after that). Yeah – this quickly adds up. So is the government going to give back money to people who don’t end up owing that much on their taxes, after expenses? I doubt it.
But there is another side to this. Bush also wants to increase taxes on people who have good coverage to offset these refunds. Now think about that for a minute. How many millionaires do you know with health insurance? I don’t know any (and yes I know a few millionaires). These people use private accounts for their health coverage. So that will make this a tax on the middle class. People making $30,000 -$60,000 a year, who happen to work for a company that gives good health coverage (ie: Costco), will now get taxed more, while the top wage earners in the country will still not be affected.
This is more White House spin, trying to make it sound like they are concerned, but still looking out for their buddies. John Edwards said it right when he said we can not have universal health care coverage without raising taxes. Of course the taxes raised must be on the upper 2% of this country. We are seeing a growing divide in the social levels, which is destroying this country. Perhaps this system would help two-fold. It will give us universal health care coverage while helping more people live the American dream.