The employer health-care insurance scam

In the posts, “‘The “Medicare for All’ controversy”, and “Ten Steps to Prosperity: Step 2. Federally funded Medicare — Parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone”, we describe how easily the federal government could provide free healthcare insurance to every man, woman, and child in America.

The program could pay for comprehensive, no deductible, no-coinsurance, no-limit, no out-of-pocket costs of any kind insurance, without levying a penny in federal taxes.

Instead of that, America, the wealthiest nation on earth has this:Even Golden Handcuffs Are Shackles

‘Focused on survival’: Millions of laid-off Americans still living without health insurance
Alexis Keenan·Reporter
Fri, September 25, 2020, 3:12 PM CDT
With hundreds of thousands of Americans filing new unemployment claims every week, sobering evidence of the difficulties faced by laid-off workers is showing up in the estimated number of U.S. adults now lacking health insurance.

Since the onset of COVID-19 in mid-March, workers who lost employment-based healthcare insurance (ESI) far outnumber those who gained coverage, either through a public or private option.

Approximately 4.6 million to 5.6 million workers who lost job-based coverage since March are now uninsured.

It’s common for those who have lost job-based insurance to go without it. Unless you have a serious health issue, insurance is just not on the priority list.

Medicaid eligibility largely depends on the state where the laid-off worker resides, and is based on current monthly income.

In states that have expanded Medicaid, those with current monthly income less than 138% of the federal poverty level are eligible. For a family of 3, the limit is approximately $2,500 per month. For an individual, the limit is approximately $1,466 per month.

In states that have not expanded Medicaid, eligibility is limited to parents with minor children whose median income is below 40% of the federal poverty level, or whose annual income did not exceed $8,532 for a family of three in 2019.

ESI is designed to seem like a wonderful perk. In most cases, the employer seems to pay most or all of the premiums, and you, the employee, usually are guaranteed coverage, even with pre-existing conditions.

Except:

  1. The employer really doesn’t pay. He’s just a go-between. When hiring, employers calculate the cost of employees to include all costs (salaries, perks, office space, expense accounts, etc.) The reality is, the employee pays for everything, with the only benefit being the tax benefits for running the costs through the employer. Salaries could be higher if the employer didn’t pay for healthcare insurance.
  2.  Most insurance plans charge according to experience, so the employers pay more for “expensive employees” (older employees and those with expensive medical conditions.) That is one reason why you “expensive employees” have more difficulty finding jobs. Employers quietly discriminate against you.
  3. If you lose your job, you may have difficulty finding healthcare insurance, or if you do, it probably will be at a high cost at just the time when your income has disappeared. So the “free” ESI is a pair of golden handcuffs (that you really pay for).

Especially, if you are in your 50s or older, the terror of losing your healthcare insurance, at just the time in your life when you will begin to need it  most, can leave you completely at the mercy of your employer.

And that is the whole point.

America’s rich write America’s laws, including tax laws.

From H&R Block:

In 2018, the IRS allowed you to deduct medical expenses that exceeded 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, all taxpayers may deduct only the amount of the total unreimbursed allowable medical care expenses for the year that exceeds 10% of their adjusted gross income.

You aren’t able to claim both an itemized tax deduction with your standard deduction. Essentially, your medical deduction needs to be significant, along with other itemizations, to give you a great deduction.

For the current tax year, the standard deduction is worth $12,000 for single taxpayers and $24,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly. If you’re filing as the head of household, it’s worth $18,000.

Get it? For a business, all medical expenses are tax-deductible. Businesses pay taxes on profits. But,, for you individually, medical expenses only are deductible after they go above 10% of your adjusted gross income or your standard deduction.

If, for instance, your income is $50,000, the first $5,000 of your medical expenses isn’t tax deductible.

Side note: The so-called “standard deduction” is not a deduction. It is the amount you can’t claim if you wish to itemize your expenses. The higher the “standard deduction,” the less you can claim as a deduction for expenses.

The above paragraph about standard deductions really should read, “For the current tax year, single taxpayers can’t take the first $12,000 expenses as deductions. Married taxpayers can’t take the first $24,000, and heads of households can’t take the first $18,000.”

That means the vast majority of Americans can’t take any expense deduction at all. By contrast, businesses can deduct almost all their expenses.

It’s just another con job by the rich.

Getting back to Medicare for All, if the federal government funded a comprehensive plan that covered all your hospital, doctor, equipment, and long-term care costs, not only could your salary be higher, but your employer would not “own” you. Losing your job would be far less traumatic.

The federal government already has done the hard work by creating Medicare for All (over 65), so the functional problems have been solved. It would be a simple matter to reduce the qualifying age to 0, and to eliminate deductibles and co-pays.

Except, that is not what the rich want. They want to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, and one sneaky way to do it is via employer-provided healthcare insurance.

And now, we’ll entertain the false claims that Medicare for All is “unsustainable” and/or “socialism.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Why should we care about you losing your healthcare insurance? We’re OK.

Why should we care about you losing your healthcare insurance? We have great insurance and it’s all paid for by the government. Life is good (to us).

 

Is Lindsey Graham in trouble? - CNNPolitics
“That’s true, isn’t it, Lindsey?” “Yes sir, yes sir. It sure is, sir. Is that a smudge I see on your shoe?”

 

Senate Republicans Don't Really Want to Govern in the Era of Trump | The Nation
Cheer up, people. We’re OK. We have the votes — and the very best healthcare insurance. Don’t worry about the little people out there.

The “Medicare for All” controversy

Because I have Medicare coverage, I received in the mail, my copy of “Medicare & You, 2021.”   Feel free to read it by clicking the link.

Though it is a huge book, about 140 pages long, describing many Medicare rules and coverages, it is not comprehensive. Medicare rules are complex, and there is much more a person needs to know.

For instance, individual states have separate rules, so many questions need to be answered by individual state representatives. And all the costs must be found elsewhere.

There may be three people on earth who have read and understand all the Medicare laws — or maybe not even three.

Here is Medicare’s brief summary:

To Qualify For Medicare:
If you’re already getting benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), you’ll automatically get Part A and Part B starting
the first day of the month you turn 65.

If you’re under 65 and have a disability, you’ll automatically get Part A and Part B after you get disability benefits from Social Security or certain disability benefits from the RRB for 24 months.

If you live in Puerto Rico, you don’t automatically get Part B. You must sign up for it.

If you have ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease), you’ll get Part A and Part B automatically the month your Social
Security disability benefits begin.

If you don’t want Part B, let us know before the coverage start date on your Medicare card. If you do nothing, you’ll keep Part B and will have to pay Part B premiums through your Social Security benefits. If you choose not to keep Part B but decide you want it later, you may have to wait to enroll and pay a penalty for as long as you have Part B

Summaries of benefits:

And this doesn’t even touch on the ten (!) different “Medigap” plans that cover some of what original Medicare doesn’t. The descriptions of these ten plans begin on page 71.

And then there are the numerous Medicare Part D (prescription drugs) plans.  We won’t even get into the convoluted, complex rules, and various coverage alternatives described on pp 75-85.

Another of the big problems with the Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medigap, and Part D program is: You cannot know which plan is best for you.

The reason: You don’t know what your health situation will be in the coming months and years. You are forced to guess. So if you choose a plan that doesn’t cover your future misfortune, you’re out of luck.

Further, if you have a serious condition, and wish to change Medigap plans, you may not be able to find one that will accept you.

There are a great many limitations on who and what the various Medicare plans will cover, and none of it is free. You supposedly pay for it as part of your payroll taxes. We say “supposedly,” because every penny you pay in any federal taxes — payroll, income, etc. — every penny is destroyed upon receipt.

So you pay needlessly for incomplete, complex plans. Additionally, Medigap and Part D require separate, out-of-pocket premiums.

In short, unless you are a rocket scientist who also can see the future, you probably can’t have the plan that’s best for you.

There is a better way. In addition to eliminating the useless and regressive payroll tax, Medicare itself can and should be improved.

Here is a suggested summary of a Medicare for All plan:

To Qualify for Medicare for All:
You are a citizen of the United States, or you have lived in the United States and its territories, for at least 6 months in the previous calendar year.

Summary of the benefits:
1. You can go to any doctor or hospital that is accepted by Medicare for All, anywhere in the world.
2. You do not need a referral to see a specialist.
3. All medical services, including doctor, hospital, medically necessary services, and pharmaceutical costs (including dental, vision, and periodical examinations and treatments are covered by Medicare for All. There are no co-pays, deductibles, or out-of-pocket costs.
4. No pre-approvals are necessary.
5. There are no cost-limits.

That’s it. There is no need to determine which plan is best for you. The one plan is comprehensive. The federal government will pay for everything.

And lest you think such a plan will be too costly, remember this: The U.S. federal government is Monetarily Sovereign. That means it has the unlimited ability to pay for anything. It never can run short of dollars.

Proof of that is occurring right now, as this year the federal government has pumped an additional $4 trillion+ into the economy to help America survive the economic costs of the COVID-19 virus.

The more the federal government spends, the more economic stimulus the economy receives.

And no, federal spending never causes inflation, which always is caused by shortages, usually shortages of food or energy. Those notorious Zimbabwe and Weimar hyperinflations were caused by scarcities, not the resultant money-printing.

Then, we come to Congressional fear of insurance companies. These companies are nothing but middlemen between you and your healthcare providers.

They bribe your Congressional representatives to maintain the status quo. They add nothing; they merely pass your money along, while extracting a piece for themselves.

Original Medicare eliminated some of the insurance middlemen. It now is time to eliminate the rest.

Finally, we come to the dreaded word, “socialism.” Although the vast majority of Americans favor Medicare and its benefits, any expansion and simplification of these benefits is immediately and wrongly attacked as “socialism.”

It isn’t socialism. Socialism is government ownership and control over resources, not government spending. Medicare and Social Security are not socialism. The biggest example of socialism in America is the U.S.

military. Shall we do away with the military?

The VA hospitals, the federal highway system, NASA, the FBI and CIA are socialism. Shall we do away with them?

The “socialism” epithet is a lie when applied to Medicare for All. It is a lie designed to keep you from having the same healthcare the rich have.

Bottom Line
The United States has one of the worst medical programs of any major nation. The reason solely is due to debt fear-mongers who falsely proclaim that federal spending is “unsustainable.”

Given the federal government’s unlimited access to dollars, a simpler, more comprehensive health-care plan, totally funded by the federal government, can and should be instituted.

The fact that America doesn’t have one is a disgrace. We have a whole suite of expensive, yet inferior, incomplete plans, foisted on us by Congressional and Presidential cowardice and ignorance.

You deserve better.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

A serious healthcare problem. The simple healthcare solution.

Here are excerpts from a September 24, 2020 Email written by Sen. Dick Durbin, in which he eloquently expresses today’s most serious healthcare problem:

On November 10, just one week after Election Day, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case in which the Trump Administration and Republicans are arguing that the Affordable Care Act should be struck down in its entirety. 

If the Supreme Court does what the Trump Administration and Republicans are asking it to do, an estimated 20 million Americans would lose their health care coverage. 

Millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions would lose protections that the Affordable Care Act grants them against discrimination by insurance companies. 

Young adults up to age 26 would no longer be able to stay on their parents’ health insurance. 

Medicare would face insolvency sooner, and seniors could be charged more for prescription drugs.

And hospitals, especially in rural areas, would see significant revenue and job losses.

At this moment, in the middle of a global health pandemic, it is almost unimaginable that Republicans are trying to wipe out the critical health care protections in the ACA.  But that’s what they are fighting for in this case.  

You can’t afford my treatment because you voted Republican?

President Trump and Senator McConnell are ignoring the voice of the American people and are trying to rush a nominee onto the Supreme Court before this critical case that will decide the future of Americans’ healthcare. 

Considering all that is at stake, the American people’s voices should be heard and Justice Ginsburg’s last wish should be honored – no confirmation before inauguration.

In short, the healthcare problem is that a conservative Supreme Court, a Republican Congress, and a Republican President want to damage America’s already-shaky, expensive healthcare system.

The GOP’s purpose — their sole purpose — is to satisfy Trump’s maniacal urge to erase anything associated with Barack Obama.

Although Trump repeatedly has promised you a “better” program that will insure all Americans, in almost four years of his administration, no such plan even has been formulated or proposed, much less enacted. It’s all a Trump lie.

This is yet another example of how the GOP, the “party-of-the-rich,” attempts to make the rich richer by widening the wealth Gap between the rich and you.

The rich easily can afford to pay for their known and their unexpected healthcare costs, even without federal support.

Can you?

These are costs for the “average” person. If you have an impossible-to-predict health catastrophe, your healthcare spending may be far higher. Second, the above figures assume that healthcare costs in the future increase at the same rate as inflation. But in the last two decades, healthcare costs have increased twice as fast as inflation. 

You have, however, a solution: Vote Trump and the GOP Congress out. Their Democratic replacements will vote to provide healthcare insurance for every man, woman, and child in America.

No longer will you have to worry about the potentially disastrous costs of healthcare. No longer will you have to worry about whether you will receive care at all.

Your doctor will be paid. Your hospital will be paid. And you will receive the same care as the rich receive.

The cost can be borne entirely by the U.S. federal government, which being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited financial ability to pay for anything, without levying taxes.

If you have logical concerns about your ability to qualify for, and fund, affordable healthcare, today and in the future, you now can do something about it: Vote the GOP out.

There was a time when the GOP cared about the poor and middle-income people. Today’s GOP is different. It has been taken over by the uncaring rich.

Even if your family and your friends always have voted Republican, even if, for whatever reason you hate Biden and the Democrats, there is a simple, smart financial choice available to you.

Make the wrong choice and you’ll be slapping your forehead for the rest of your life. You never will forgive yourself, and your kids never will forgive you.

Make the smart choice and you’ll be able to relax in confidence, knowing that all your, and your family’s known or unexpected healthcare costs will be paid for.

Vote. Vote smart.

It’s that simple.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

  1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
  2. Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics. Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity:

  1. Eliminate FICA
  2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
  3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax
  4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
  5. Salary for attending school
  6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
  7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
  8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
  9. Federal ownership of all banks
  10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY