Apparently President Bush is starting to feel our pain. The State of the Union speech is likely to include his plan for fixing the health care problem in the U.S.
When I first read about this in the New York Times yesterday, I was quite confused.
President Bush intends to use his State of the Union address Tuesday to tackle the rising cost of health care with a one-two punch: tax breaks to help low-income people buy health insurance and tax increases for some workers whose health plans cost significantly more than the national average.
The basic concept is that employer-provided health insurance, now treated as a fringe benefit exempt from taxation, would no longer be entirely tax-free. Workers could be taxed if their coverage exceeded limits set by the government. But the government would also offer a new tax deduction for people buying health insurance on their own.
Since this approach made absolutely no sense, I assumed I had misread or misunderstood what was intended.
Apparently not.
In Paul Krugman’s opinion piece today (subscription only), he points out that the plan is a wrong-headed as I thought.
First, the plan assumes that low-income people don’t buy health insurance as a matter of choice. I think that most people would love to have it, but are too busy buying things like food and shelter. A tax break for buying health insurance? Give me a break. Yeah, that will help.
In his Saturday radio address:
Mr. Bush suggested that we should “treat health insurance more like home ownership.” He went on to say that “the current tax code encourages home ownership by allowing you to deduct the interest on your mortgage from your taxes. We can reform the tax code, so that it provides a similar incentive for you to buy health insurance.”
I may be wrong, but I see nothing like universal home ownership in this country.
Krugman also points out that besides lower-income Americans there is another group that is uninsured.
…many can’t get coverage because of pre-existing conditions — everything from diabetes to a long-ago case of jock itch. Again, tax deductions won’t solve their problem.
Ooops. I guess no one is supposed to notice that glaring loophole.
As bad as all that is, our President appears to believe that some middle class workers have it too good when it comes to health insurance.
Mr. Bush is also proposing a tax increase — not on the wealthy, but on workers who, he thinks, have too much health insurance. The tax code, he said, “unwisely encourages workers to choose overly expensive, gold-plated plans. The result is that insurance premiums rise, and many Americans cannot afford the coverage they need.”
No word on whether the health insurance coverage for the Prez and Congress is “gold-plated.”
I truly cannot comprehend where Bush is coming from. Is he beyond cynical? Ignorant? Unintelligent? Lacking in empathy?
If this plan is actually presented in the State of the Union speech what is the appropriate response. Laughter at the ludicrousness of it? Demands for competency hearings?
All I know is that this whole thing has made me feel nauseated.