Friday, April 24, 2009

A tax on sick people

Dr. Wes: The ultimate irony: A sick tax to make health care affordable.

Labels:

13 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

The doublespeak is strong in Colorado.

11:31 AM, April 24, 2009  
Blogger J. Bowen said...

I'm surprised you haven't written about this: http://bureaucrash.com/2009/04/01/who-is-health-care-regulation-protecting/. Heck, I'm that I didn't read about or hear about this from anywhere except Bureaucrash.

12:34 PM, April 24, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Change we can believe in.

Uh huh.

1:07 PM, April 24, 2009  
Blogger Larry J said...

TABOR is part of the Colorado constitution. TABOR prohibits Colorado governments from raising taxes without an affirmative vote of the taxpayers. So now they just call it a fee instead of a tax. The state Supreme Court ruled that was fine. What do we do when the highest court in the state ignores the constitution and the law?

1:07 PM, April 24, 2009  
Blogger javadoug said...

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't this be like 'paying for your own health care'?
And wouldn't that be a good thing.
Insurance is the worst thing they ever invented, because it is basically socialism. All you going Galt people should be against socialism, and therefore should be for a tax on sick people.
Way back when, when people payed for their own health care, before WWII when the instituted payroll deductions, which prompted employers to give free health care, way back before that, people had the audacity of paying for their own health care. And guess what, it was affordable. Today people feel entitled, and they think they are entitled to have everything, including health care, free.
So I'm all for a tax on sick people. That at least gets us back to a system where people should be paying for what they receive.

4:10 PM, April 24, 2009  
Blogger Larry J said...

From the original article:

The state House has passed HB 1293, a tax on sick people. The bill directs hospitals to add a “fee” of up to 5.5 percent on every patient’s bill, keeps the fee secret by prohibiting hospitals from listing it separately, and reimburses hospitals on the basis of what they say their costs are.

Those supporting HB 1293 pretend that this is a fee on hospitals. They say hospitals will pay this fee, something that can be true only if hospitals have large pots of surplus funds lying around.
This isn't about people paying for their own health care. It's a 5.5% tax on hospital bills being labeled as a fee. All it will do is increase the cost of health care to give more money to the state.

From the article:

The ultimate irony in all this is that HB 1293’s sponsors upped the ante on their language perversion by claiming that the magic fee that increases the cost of private sector health care to the tune of $600,000,000 a year “makes health care more affordable.” They even named HB 1293 the “Colorado Healthcare Affordability Act.” For this legislature, bigger government and higher fees translates into more affordable living both for it and for its big business friends.How is a $600 million increase in health care costs as a result of this "fee" going to lower health care costs?

The fact that the bill prohibits hospitals from itemizing this expense suggests to me that this is meant to be a stealth tax increase. They want the money but they want the "greedy hospitals" to be blamed for the price increase. Sweet for the political money grubbers but a raw deal for everyone else.

4:59 PM, April 24, 2009  
Blogger J. Bowen said...

You know, it's enough to make one wonder whether or not the politicians are intentionally driving up the costs of health care so as to entice the people into demanding even greater socialization of health care and health insurance.

5:28 PM, April 24, 2009  
Blogger Trust said...

A sick tax, an appropriate name considering our sick president and sick Congress controlled by a sick political party.

6:31 PM, April 24, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I also loved the term "job privilege fees".

I have wondered how they were going to tax sunlight. Ah, solar power!

As with everything else, I just can't understand how people can think anything is free. The consumer, or taxpayer, or sick person, or whatever pays it all. Every nickel, every time.

The bailouts are deferring it to the future generatrions.

8:51 AM, April 25, 2009  
Blogger TMink said...

br549 asked: "I have wondered how they were going to tax sunlight. Ah, solar power!"

Yep, and cap and trade is just a way to tax the air that we breathe.

Trey

11:03 AM, April 25, 2009  
Blogger Cappy said...

The floggings will continue until morale improves.

11:36 AM, April 25, 2009  
Blogger MensaRefugee said...

javadoug is absolutely right.

When Michael Moore gets a heart attack from his obesity - he should be 'taxed' so I dont have to pay for him.

9:41 PM, April 25, 2009  
Blogger DADvocate said...

Pretty typical of how government works in this country. I'll never understand why so many people put so much faith and trust in government.

1:12 PM, April 26, 2009  

Post a Comment

<< Home