July 24, 2007 by RBuffordTJ.

This was an editorial in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal which actually details out the costs involved with “Free Socialized Health Care” on just a single state level. Take a minute and read the facts so you know what your asking for when you request your government to pay for your health care costs.

Wall Street Journal
Tuesday July 24, 2007
Opinion pg. A14

Review & Outlook
“Cheese Headcases”

When Louis Brandeis praised the 50 states as “laboratories of democracy,: he didn’t claim that every policy experiment would work. So we hope the eyes of America will turn to Wisconsin, and the effort by Madison Democrats to make that “progressive” state a petri dish for government-run health care.

This exercise is especially instructive, because it reveals where the “single-payer,” universal coverage folks end up. Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And, wow, is “free” health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.

Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined.

This employment tax is on top of the $1 billion grab bag of other levies that Democratic Governor Jim Doyle proposed and the tax-happy Senate has also approved, including a $1.25 a pack increase on the cigarette tax, a 10% hike in the corporate tax, and new fees on cars, trucks, hospitals, real estate transactions, oil companies and dry cleaners. In all, the tax burden in the Badger state could rise to 20% of family income, which is slightly more than the average federal tax burden. “At least federal taxes pay for Army and Navy,” quips R.J. Parlot of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce business lobby.

As if that’s not enough, the health plan includes tax escalator clause allowing an additional 1.5 percentage point payroll tax to finance higher outlays in the future. This could bring the payroll tax to 16%. One reason to expect costs to soar is that the state may become a mecca for the unemployed, uninsured and sick from all over North America. The legislation doesn’t require that you have a job in Wisconsin to qualify, merely that you live in the state for at least 12 months. Cheesehead nation could expect to attract health-care free-riders while losing productive workers who leave for less-taxing climes.

Proponents use the familiar argument for national health care that this wills ave money (about $1.8 billion a year) through efficiency gains by eliminating the administrative costs of private insurance. And unions and some big business with rich union health plans are only too happy to dump these liabilities onto the government.

But those costs won’t vanish; they’ll merely shift to all taxpayers and businesses. Small employers that can’t afford to provide insurance would see their employment costs rise by thousands of dollars per worker, while those that now provide a basic health insurance plan would have to pay $400 to $500 a year more per employee.

The plan is an openly hostile to marked incentives that contain costs. Private companies are making modest progress in sweating out health-care inflation by making patients more cost-conscious through increased copayments, health savings accounts, and incentives for wellness. The Wisconsin program moves in the opposite direction: It reduces out-of-pocket copayments, bars money-savings HSA plans, and increases the number of mandated medical services covered under the plan.

So where will savings com from? Where they always do in any government plan: Rationing via price controls and, as costs rise, waiting periods and coverage restrictions. This is Michael Moore’s medical dream state.

The last line of defense against this plan are the Republicans who run the Wisconsin House. So far they’ve been unified and they recently voted the Senate plan down. Democrats are now planning to take their ideas to the voters in legislative races next year, and that’s a debate Wisconsinites should look forward to. At least Wisconsin Democrats are admitting how much it will cost Americans to pay for government-run health care. Would that Washington Democrats were as forthright.

Suddenly the “free” health care doesn’t look so free, or enticing, now does it. Wake up America! Your being asked to kill your own economy.

Common Sense Wins Again!
Bufford

Posted in RBuffordTJ, Coherent Thoughts, Politics, Current Events | Print | 6 Comments »

July 10, 2007 by sbrammer.

A couple of weeks ago, i was re-arranging the schedule due to somebody being let go. I had a meeting with my student workers to work out the schedule. Afterwards i get a phone call from a student worker who worked for me last year who wants to work for a month until he goes back to SIU-C. So, i had to move some people around, and at first they didn’t want to give up hours, but didn’t realize they were getting a 80 cent raise. I explained to them you will still coming out ahead in money and by working less hours.

These made me started thinking. Every year we get a percentage raise, and this year we got a 2% raise and will get another % rasie when faculty neogiations are finished. So, i figured the amount that the student workers were getting to the amount it got raised to, and it is a 12% raise. By 2010, minimum wage will be $8.25\hr here in IL. So, in three years minimum wage workers will receive a 27% increase.

So, people who are working minimum wage jobs, it is a good thing; however people like myself will be getting screwed over. When you get your pay increase, I’m taking a pay cut, because I have to pay more for everything becuase everytime minimum wage goes up, everything else goes up as well. One co-woker said it best: “i’m one dollar closer to being at the poverty level now than i was a few weeks ago. ”

On one hand, I don’t have a problem with minimum wage increase as long as they increase the wages of other people that are close to that. But on the other hand, most of the people working minimum wage jobs are High School or college students working their way through school, and i don’t think they deserve to be making that kind of money. Plus increasing minimum wage will also hurt small businesses. So, pretty much it’s like this: minimum wage people like the increase; people who are wealthy don’t see a difference, but the middle class is the ones getting the raw end of the deal.

We have several positions at the college where the people are making $8\hr. Now when minimum wage went up from $6.50 -> $7.50, you would think people would realize that the minimum wage people are getting very close to the same amount that they are receiving. Plus that full time staff position might require either an Associates degree, a bachelor’s degree or x number of years experience. Oh not to mention, that new hires are getting paid more some people who have been there for several years. What’s up with that?

It’s going to be very interesting for the next few years to see what takes place regarding this issue. Several of us had a discussion one day, and all of us are on the same page about this.

So, let me hear your thoughts, comments on this. Tell others about this, and have them comment as well.

- Seth

Posted in sbrammer, Coherent Thoughts, Current Events | Print | 6 Comments »