ervin_parker asked:


How do you feel about McCain continuing Bush’s war on the middle class and working poor?

A New Tax on Working Families. McCain wants to shift the burden from employers to workers. He will make health care premiums part of taxable income, essentially creating a new tax for working families.

McCAIN’S HEALTH CARE PROPOSAL Will Increase Costs and Reduce Benefits. John McCain’s health care proposal is similar to President Bush’s failed plan. Like Bush’s, McCain’s plan undermines existing employer-based health care and pushes workers into the private market to fight big insurance companies on their own. It will reduce benefits, increase costs and leave many with no health care at all.

The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting has proposed that everyone buying health insurance get a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families. At the same time, he would treat employer contributions toward health insurance like income, meaning workers would have to pay income, but not payroll, taxes on it.

The modest tax credit McCain wants to give people to cover his new tax would cover less than half the average health premium, leaving workers to pick up the difference. Also, by promoting high-deductible Health Savings Account (HSA) plans, which provide fewer benefits at higher costs, he will make the high costs of individual insurance even worse.

As much as Americans complain about the cost of health care, they like the fact that employers pick up most of their health insurance expenses. They also like that their share is taken from their paychecks on a pretax basis, and fear anything that could jeopardize that prized benefit.

A poll of employer-insured voters conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly two-thirds thought it would be harder to find a plan that matches their needs and handle administrative issues if they were buying insurance on their own. Eight in 10 said they thought it would be harder to get a good price for insurance or get coverage if they were sick.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_health_plan_Let_taxpayers_not_0706.html
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/mccain_healthcare.cfm
Who Benefits from ta breaks
The Laffer Curve
http://www.lcurve.org/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5297476348213155147&hl=en

Paula

Lonestar asked:


Health Savings Accounts -
This is where you can set aside up to $2,900 every year in a special tax-free savings account. The money is allowed to cumulate year after year. This is before tax money. Then, with this money sitting in your HSA you can go out and buy a high-deductible health insurance policy that will be much less expensive than the policy you have today. You can then use the HSA money for your medical care and let the high-deductible health insurance policy kick in much later.

Sounds like a good idea right? Well … here come the Democrats. Democrats have made affordable health care a mainstay of their election agenda, but apparently only if you’re willing to get insurance through the government.

Democrats don’t like Health Savings Accounts. And why not? Because when you have that money stashed away for medical expenses, and when you can afford to buy a high-deductible health insurance policy, you won’t be standing around screaming for the government to do something …

Hector

Michelle asked:


My daughter and I are covered by my husband’s health insurance through his employer. We have a High Deductible Health Insurance Plan and contribute to a Health Savings Account through my husband’s payroll deduction.

Through my employer, I have only elected to have Vision coverage. So, can I set up a Flexible Spending Account through my employer and contribute through my own payroll deduction? I’m asking b/c I would like to have an FSA to pay for my daughter’s daycare expenses so that I may take advantage of the tax benefits of doing so. Thanks!

Alvin