Health & Taxes
Posted Thu, 05/01/08
Last week while I was my doctor's waiting room, I flipped through a recent issue of Web MD. There was a small piece at the end of the magazine (Compare the Candidates) that confirmed my belief that Hillary Clinton is the most viable candidate for our next President:
Clinton proposes a universal program that extends portable care to all Americans, and gives them several options. If people have insurance and are satisfied with it, they can keep it. Otherwise, they can choose from a private plan similar to what Congress has, or a Medicare-type plan for low-income Americans. She does propose an "individual mandate" requiring all Americans to sign up for health insurance, according to the New York Times. She also says this plan will promote "shared responsibility" between the public, private, and government worlds and will not increase bureaucracy. The estimated annual cost for her plan would be $110 billion, financed by rolling back Bush tax cuts for people making more than $250,000. Clinton also says a lot of her efficiency and modernization reforms would save money.
It's infuriating, appalling and embarrassing to think our current President finds it more important to provide tax cuts to the wealthy rather than making efforts to take care of the medically uninsured.
Speaking of taxes, the pending tax rebate most people will be receiving this month was initialed in hopes it would help jump-start the current sagging American economy. The government wants its citizens to pour into retail stores and spend their money, but according to several polls the people are more concerned with paying off their existing debt rather than injecting some vigor into the economy.
Because the situation is dire – more so than the powers-that-be will let on, of course – many Americans will be paying off some of their credit card debt (increased by rising costs of food and other items and made impossible by ludicrous interest rates), rather than splurging on luxury purchases.
For example, I owed money when filing taxes in March but used my credit card to pay the bill. Therefore, most of my rebate will go toward the credit card while the other half will go toward my share of recent medical bills. Not much left to stimulate the economy, I'm afraid.
Tags: Politics