Sunday, August 26, 2007

At least he asked


Jeff Miller, my Congressperson, has this poll on the front page of his House.gov website:

Would you pay a 25% higher Federal tax bill for National Health Care coverage?

Hmmmm... I pay about $5000 in taxes per year, if you want to go high and count Social Security as well as income tax. Another $1250 per year would be a real bite. Some 289 of my neighbors agree and aren't willing to take that bite.

But speaking of bites... Back when I had insurance, that was costing me $5000 per year and when I needed it and tried to use it, what I got was cancelled. I also got hit with medical bills equal to about two years worth of my entire income, expenses that the insurance company had pre-approved, should have paid, and weaseled out of.

Would I pay $1250 per year for guaranteed medical care?

Oh Hell Yes.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't be anything like a 25% increase and Miller should know that.

The real issue is whether the people who have benefited from the government policies should start paying taxes again.

hipparchia said...

of course it wouldn't, of course he should, and yes those freeloaders damn well should go back to paying taxes.

the question is dishonestly worded too, though we're going to have to pay for all these wars somehow. if we get national health insurance at approximately the same time, the rise in taxes will be blamed on that instead of the real culprit: invading other peoples countries.

Steve Bates said...

If the question had not been dishonestly worded, a lot more people would have answered as you did. As I would. Indeed, the whole question and answer are (quite deliberately, I'm sure) meaningless, a political straw man. I hate it when "they" do that; the most exasperating aspect of self-proclaimed "conservatives" (as if!) is the frequency with which they set up straw men. (And straw women, if they're talking about abortion or women's health care.)

[iiiow - I, I, I owe W... well we needn't go there.]

Archaeopteryx said...

Really. Twelve hundred bucks a year. Is there anybody paying less than that now?

hipparchia said...

[yeah, about 45 million of us. we pay zilch.]

most people *i* know are paying $3000-$6000 for family coverage, and that's just premiums, with their employers footing part of the bill. i haven't even gotten around to mentioning co-pays, deductibles, and how the maximum out of pocket is a bigger maximum that they tell you it is.

hipparchia said...

you got that right, steve, they're not conservatives. life under a true conservative government wouldn't be as i wish it, but it would be better than what we've got now.

Thy Goddess said...

Pay me $250 and consider yourself healed.

:)

hipparchia said...

goddess!

lovely to see you! best offer i've had [although there was this one massage therapist... ]

still happy in the new digs?

Unknown said...

I agree with Bryan: an additional 25% is a high estimate of the costs.

As one who was without health insurance for two years, I unfortunately know what it is like to make a choice between the medications one needs and the medications one can afford.

hipparchia said...

if the present administration hadn't squandered so much money on wars, we sure could have done it without raising taxes. we'll be a long time digging ourselves out of the hole we're in now, and we'll need to increase tax revenues somehow just to pay for that.

i'd still happily pay 25% more in taxes for guaranteed medical care. in a heartbeat.