. . HEALTH CARE REFORM : LAW: COURTS: FEDERAL: SUPREME COURT : UNITED STATES: GOVERNMENT: The Costs of Overturning Obama's Health Care Reforms . . The Costs of Overturning Obama's Health Care Reforms By Robert J. Shapiro The Globalist CNNhttp://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/03/ the-costs-of-overturning-obamas-health-care-reforms/
. The complete article may be read at the URL above. . http://tinyurl.com/c6g74rz . . The costs of overturning Obama's health care reforms By Robert J. Shapiro, The Globalist .It has been clear for some time that, without major reforms, the U.S. healthcare system will soon impose unmanageable and unsustainable burdens on millions of middle-class Americans.
.By 2016, the average family is expected to earn about $54,000. In that year, moderately-priced health insurance for a family of four will cost about $14,700. Employers will pick up much of the tab for most middle-class families.
.But all of those employer payments come out of people's wages and salaries. So, adding the value of that coverage to the average family's income in 2016 - $54,000 + $14,700 = $68,700 - we see that the cost of health insurance alone will soon claim more than 21% of an average family's annual resources.
.On top of that, the average U.S. family's co-payments and other uninsured expenses are expected to come to another $5,100. The average family also pays payroll taxes that help cover other people's health care - 2.9% of their wages for Medicare ($1,566). They also pay perhaps $1,000 more in federal and state taxes for Medicaid and Medicare costs not covered by the payroll tax.
.Add all of that to the cost of their insurance, and health care will claim $22,366 from an average U.S. family in 2016, or 32.5% of their adjusted income of $68,700. Why should the average American family have to pay nearly one third of its annual income for a healthcare system that will, by 2016, claim about 18% of GDP?
.Part of the answer is that the average worker earning $68,700, a manager making $150,000, and the CEO earning $5 million all pay roughly the same $14,700 for their family coverage. The result is that middle-class families spend a much larger share of their income on health care than wealthier families.
.That is very different from other countries such as Germany, where health insurance costs are assessed as a percentage of income (up to a certain level). Thus, lower income earners pay the same share of their income to have health care as people who are financially better off.
. snip .One of the reasons why health insurance costs middle-class families in the United States so much is that their bill includes a good share of the costs of treating those without insurance. A reasonable estimate of the costs of treating the uninsured that are passed along to average policyholders is about $300 per person, or $1,200 for a family of four.
.President Obama's plan to end those pass-along costs by mandating universal coverage was, of course, the central issue in last week's arguments at the Supreme Court. Behind the high-minded debates over principle lies the harsh politics of who is to pay for it. The Obama Administration's reforms shift most of the costs of the uninsured to the government.
.These costs ultimately will be financed through non-payroll taxes - the personal and corporate income tax - that in turn fall disproportionately on higher-income Americans.
.That is the choice, and it helps explain the vehemence of the partisan battle over the mandate: The President's reforms will shift tens of billions of dollars in annual costs from middle-class families with private insurance to more affluent taxpayers.
. . The complete article may be read at the URL above. . . Sincerely, David Dillard Temple University (215) 204 - 4584 jwne@xxxxxxxxxx http://workface.com/e/daviddillard Net-Gold http://groups.yahoo.com/group/net-gold http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/net-gold.html Index: http://tinyurl.com/myxb4w http://groups.google.com/group/net-gold?hl=en General Internet & Print Resources http://guides.temple.edu/general-internet COUNTRIES http://guides.temple.edu/general-country-info EMPLOYMENT http://guides.temple.edu/EMPLOYMENT TOURISM http://guides.temple.edu/tourism DISABILITIES http://guides.temple.edu/DISABILITIES INDOOR GARDENING http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/IndoorGardeningUrban/ Educator-Gold http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Educator-Gold/ K12ADMINLIFE http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K12AdminLIFE/ The Russell Conwell Learning Center Research Guide: THE COLLEGE LEARNING CENTER http://tinyurl.com/yae7w79 Information Literacy http://guides.temple.edu/content.php?pid=22756&sid=2223487 Nina Dillard's Photographs on Net-Gold http://tinyurl.com/36qd2o and also http://www.flickr.com/photos/neemers/ Twitter: davidpdillard Bushell, R. & Sheldon, P. (eds), Wellness and Tourism: Mind, Body, Spirit, Place, New York: Cognizant Communication Books. Wellness Tourism: Bibliographic and Webliographic Essay David P. Dillard http://tinyurl.com/p63whl http://tinyurl.com/ou53aw INDOOR GARDENING Improve Your Chances for Indoor Gardening Success http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/IndoorGardeningUrban/ http://groups.google.com/group/indoor-gardening-and-urban-gardening SPORT-MED https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/sport-med.html http://groups.google.com/group/sport-med http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sports-med/ http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/sport-med.html HEALTH DIET FITNESS RECREATION SPORTS TOURISM http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/healthrecsport/ http://groups.google.com/group/healthrecsport http://healthrecsport.jiglu.com/ http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/health-recreation-sports-tourism.html . . Please Ignore All Links to JIGLU in search results for Net-Gold and related lists. The Net-Gold relationship with JIGLU has been terminated by JIGLU and these are dead links. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/30664 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/healthrecsport/message/145 . .