Coming soon…another government “entitlement” program
Not satisfied with the destruction of health care as we know it in this country, Congress is considering a massive new program that is sure to cost us lots of money. The proposal, introduced by Sen. Kennedy (D. Ma.), will put the government into the disability insurance business.
Sen. Edward Kennedy plans a new disability-insurance program that would automatically enroll all American workers as part of the sweeping health-care bill he is preparing to introduce, aides said Friday.[emphasis supplied]
Here’s the plan. All employees would have an extra amount of taxes (oops, I should have said premiums) deducted from their pay checks of “no more than $65 per month”. An employee could “opt out”, but I suspect that won’t be easy. And,
the money [collected by the government in under this program] would be put into its own separate fund, not available to other government spending.
Should you believe that last part, I have a nifty bridge in Brooklyn that I will be happy to sell.
Then, if an employee becomes
so disabled they cannot participate in at least two or three activities of daily living, such as eating, bathing or using the toilet,
said employee is entitled to a cash benefit of up to $50 per day.
But, here’s the best part.
The new program is distinguished from private and public disability programs in that the disabled could collect benefits even if they are still working, and it could be easier to be deemed eligible. [emphasis supplied]
Huh?
Let’s flash forward several years.
First, more and more employees will become “disabled”, and the “separate fund” will become depleted. So, the taxes (oops, premiums) of those participating will increase well beyond the “no more than $65 per month” amount. Next, as more and more employees leave the system due to the increased “premiums” deducted from their pay checks, Congress will mandate that employees will no longer be able to “opt out”. And finally, when even that can’t pay for the costs of this plan, you and I will be left with yet another “entitlement” program that is out of control, and which can only be supported by increased taxes.
This is the genesis of “entitlement” programs, innocuous at first, but lethal as time progresses.
2 Comments
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The site is not broken.
the money [collected by the government in under this program] would be put into its own separate fund, not available to other government spending.
Tell you what Teddy: return Social Security to this arrangement first, so that it can actually pay for the participants from its own funds (as it was before 1968) and see how it works out.
We also have a long history of public employees that become "disabled" during their work, take a huge disability payment, and then are (not much) later found lifting weights, playing golf, moving furniture or snowmobiling.
Government programs are poster children for the law of unintended consequences. Or is that the law of political ignorance?
How can ANYONE…….ANYONE who lives on this planet we call earth EVER, EVER thing that this "proposal" would not be abused to no end?? Really, how?