Having gone through April 15 with my clients my eyes have been opened as to why the Republicans want to repeal the ACA rather than "fix". The new taxes on higher income individuals that are included in the law hit my clients pretty hard. So it's not necessarily the healthcare part that they are obsessing about, but the increased taxes. And they know it's hard to get a large portion of the voters stirred up very much about higher taxes on the "rich". So they bang away on the misleading "government-controlled health care" idea because not much scares Americans more than things that are "government-controlled".
Friday, May 2, 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks. I have said all along that all of us, including the Rs, want everyone to have healthcare. WRT to higher taxes as a result of the ACA, you singled out Republicans in the title of your post, are your Democrat customers happy with THEIR higher taxes?
ReplyDeleteI will agree that "government-controlled" does cause me great concern. You referred to "bang away" at government-controlled" as misleading. Are you suggesting the ACA is not a large measure of Government control of healthcare or that the Rs rail against government-control when their real agenda is against higher taxes?
Personally I am not real thrilled about additional government control or higher taxes and I will double down on being against additional government control when the additional controls cause higher taxes.
Tom, I guess I could have been more clear. When I hear the phrase "government controlled" I believe that what the speaker is alluding to is a medical care system that is owned and operated and controlled 100% by the government as in some other countries. The ACA is additional regulation, but not ownership and really only control of the health care industry to the extent of the regulations. This has always been the case in the modern USA. Hospitals are still privately run, doctors own their own practices, pharmacy companies still are free to sell prescription medications, health insurance companies are still free to sell insurance policies in a free market, etc. They all must operate within the regulatory guidelines in force just as I do and you do and every other business does. So to the extent that words are being used to plant negative connotations in people's minds rather than to be accurate, using the phrase "government controlled" is misleading.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must say that my Democrat client, as there is only one, has been saying adamantly since the tax reductions in the early 00s that his income level group should be paying more taxes. Now, I know that the standard answer to that is to say, as I have heard people say about Buffet, "why doesn't he just send in more to the government and leave everybody else the hell alone" which is to miss the point altogether. No one is happy to pay more taxes, but some really do see the necessity of putting aside their own self interest to what needs to be done to help solve some of our problems. It is, I grant, a higher level of thinking. But rich Democrats...what are you gonna do?
To be clear, I don't think the ACA is anywhere near perfect. Some on the blog have agreed that a universal health care system would make much more sense. But, frankly it seems to me that anyway you do it is going to require additional revenue.
WRT additional revenue – I agree that universal healthcare will cost money and the American public should have been told the cost when the bill was being debated. Instead, voters were told that we would insure an additional 30-40M individuals, insure all preexisting conditions, keep your doctor, premium cost would go DOWN, etc. and taxes would not increase “one dime” due to the ACA.
ReplyDeleteAgreed the ACA would not have been passed if the truth had been told and agreed that universal healthcare is (I think) a desirable goal, but that does not mean the ACA is good. We can look at our recent discussion on this blog about on intent and motivation.
My stance on the ACA causes most of my acquaintances to think I am opposed to universal healthcare. They are wrong. I am In favor of universal healthcare and I am in favor of a single payer system (yes I know that is additional government control).
What I am not in favor of is paying higher taxes for what (the ACA) I consider a very poor excuse for universal health care.
Perhaps that DOES put me in the category described by the title of this post – Republicans don’t like the ACA because it increases taxes, with the caveat that I have not identified as a Republican since the Regan Administration.