Showing posts with label Premiums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Premiums. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23

Pills Attack Patient With 100%+ $$Price Hike



Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
--Dylan Thomas

If you live with injured or elderly relatives, like I do, the odds are great you are getting a crash course on healthcare quality, billing, and prescription drugs. The frequent changing of appointments and doctors for blue cross and medicaid causes havoc in prescriptions, the right prescriptions and the potentially deadly delay in receiving same.


From my end as an observer it comes down to the drugs prescribed and the cost of getting them. Just last month for my family it was $30.00 for the most expensive. This month, with millions of fixed income recipients denied their cola (cost of living) increases, the cost of prescriptions has increased 100%. And, like gas prices and the previous hardships on lifestyle and employment, this time it will cause the deaths of tens of thousands of elderly who are alone and helpless.


No one is watching or checking this because the health industry is covering its tracks in extra paperwork. No doubt like the gas companies getting a 200% profit, the drug industry if following the exact same pattern. At least the military requires permission to be sent into harm's way. This is no less than genocide of the elderly. Government sanctioned civil murder premeditated in cold blood. A legal code of reform laws bent on medical predation to bankrupt and kill their patients. Left with that, there is no future for millions. Smoke and mirrors news propaganda will blame it all on some oblique natural disaster or dire predictions of the end of the world coming true i.e. Medicare Part D or any tax on health premiums.
I cannot believe anyone would knowingly vote for this kind of change or accept this mindless propaganda we used to call news. What will they do now that everyone must brace for medical holocaust? For those who pray, Matthew, Chapter 23, with its rapt disapproval of any hippocracy, truth left unknown to the powerless, in which terminal martyrdom should come swiftly. These Clinton and Bush confluences have too easily made us blind. And now cause us all harm and death.

Thursday, February 22

NO NEW HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUM TAXATION WITHOUT DIRE RAMIFICATIONS

“Under the President’s proposal health insurance BENEFITS would be taxable income….” The author meant to say “health insurance PREMIUMS.”

It’s a terrible error since it makes the impact sound huge. And crazy!

The value of benefits is often many times larger than the premiums that secured them. In W’s new scheme, all premiums paid would have to be declared income on everybody’s tax returns.

Since very ill persons usually have extremely high health insurance premiums, their premiums are often paid in part by government agencies or others. Without some sort of “safety net” in place, they could end up being chased by the IRS for unpaid taxes. Pensions, tax refunds (!), and other government payments to individuals could be seized to pay their back taxes. And this creates a bad credit score (from unfair Isaac) that could render many unemployable.

One of my friends pays about $2,000 each month in health insurance premiums. She has a long history of cancer and other dread diseases. Bush’s proposal would leave her paying tax on the $16,500 premiums beyond the $7,500 standard deduction. Essentially, she is being taxed for becoming sick!

Under current law she could deduct the premiums as itemized deductions (over 7.5%of her AGI), but W has remained silent on this aspect of his new tax proposal. What about Medicaid? Tricare? Worker’s Compensation? Unemployment related to illness? Family Leave? Will we have to report all “constructive” premiums?

What do we call this new deduction? Also, what is the value of premiums for Medicare part A or Medicare part B beyond what is currently paid for? Bush says these are “yet to be determined.”

Shouldn’t we insure that any modifications to our health care system keep or increase, not decrease as W has suggested, what already exists at current levels?

“Monkeying” with the income tax system has become so complex that even W’s economists and those journalists covering them have failed to spell out the crucial implications. Truly, these are direct matters of life and death.

We could replace income tax benefits through direct grants, except, of course, for religious contributions (which have violated the constitutional separation of church and state provisions for decades).

Before any decisions are made, the ramifications must be known. These and other issues first need to be considered and fully addressed before we act. We complicate tax law by piling on rules upon rules without understanding them. With our tax system, it just never ends!

W’s proposal is the best argument yet to replace personal income tax. Perhaps with a “flat” tax, like the Japanese, or a VAT tax, like our European compatriot’s, we could integrate the costs of health care in a Canadian-style system that covers everyone. There is a better way!

Charles H. Copeland
Retired COO
IRS Brookhaven Center