The federal government should tax medical care

That’s the recommendation from the Institute of Medicine, an “influential federal advisory body” that “played a key role” in Obamacare.  According to the Institute, the money raised from this tax would be used to fund public health services concentrating on “preventive care”.

The levy could be imposed on doctor’s visits and prescription drugs and would apply to consumers with private insurance plans as well as those who use Medicare.

Did I miss something?  I have been told by my President that medical care is so expensive in this country that many can’t afford it, so, we need Obamacare.  But, according to the Institute of Medicine, who helped create Obamacare, it is not so expensive that we can’t place a tax on anyone who uses medical care.

According to the Institute,

[a]lthough it imposes a small financial burden on the clinical encounter [medical speak, for example, for setting your broken leg] a tax on medical-care transactions is unlikely to have a substantial deleterious economic effect.

This “small financial burden” is initially proposed to be 2% on every doctor’s visit, every emergency room visit, every clinical test, and every drug that you need.  I can’t determine whether it also applies to eye glasses and hearing aids, but I am confident that if it doesn’t initially, it will in the future.

Of course, this “‘small financial burden” is in addition to the “small financial burden” you will pay in the form of higher insurance premiums to cover the $6.7 billion per year in increased taxes on insurance companies, the $2.3 billion per year in increased taxes on pharmaceutical companies, and the $2 billion per year in increased taxes on medical device manufacturers under Obamacare.

How many “small financial burdens” does it take before our government realizes that, put together, these “small financial burdens” do have a “substantial deleterious economic effect”?

There is good news, though. 

The Institute originally thought about taxing sugary drinks, estates or life insurance.

 

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

15 Comments

  1. wvunct on April 11, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    Well, let’s see.? The “problem” with the current medical funding model is that the people who have insurance are funding (through higher premiums) the treatment of people who don’t have insurance.? Now, we have Obamacare which was supposed to “fix” the problem and lower costs, but now part of the solution would be to have the people who have insurance fund the treatment of people who don’t have insurance.? Watch carefully…which shell is the coin under??



    • stinkfoot on April 11, 2012 at 8:28 pm

      I’d wager that anyone actually believing that lowering costs was an actual objective of Obamacare could be sold a bridge located in Brooklyn.? To me the lies have become so transparent that it’s astounding me that anyone could actually believe any rhetoric that oozes forth from this administration or any of its propaganda czars.? Collectively the policies and rhetoric add up to a government with no intent on fixing something that it sees as an opportunity to cultivate popular support for intrusive policies that no person in his/her right mind would be in favor of under ordinary circumstances.? The government doesn’t need yet another source of tax revenue- it needs to do something that regular folks do every day- it needs to cut its expenditures to a level it can fund with the given revenue flow.?



  2. Dimsdale on April 11, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    “This ?small financial burden? is initially proposed to be 2% on every doctor?s visit, every emergency room visit, every clinical test, and every drug that you need.”
    ?
    I seem to recall that the income tax started out at a similar trifling amount??? Look at it now!? NEVER give government the opportunity to tax yet another good or service: it never goes away, and it always grows exponentially.



  3. dairyair on April 11, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    How many ?small financial burdens? does it take before our government realizes that, put together, these ?small financial burdens? do have a ?substantial deleterious economic effect??
    This is the problem that this administration will never admit, let alone face.? Just keep piling on the taxes, the great unwashed will comply like sheep. Jeez, when does it end???



  4. ricbee on April 12, 2012 at 12:05 am

    Medical insurance payments paid by employers should be taxed as regular income.



  5. Shared Sacrifice on April 12, 2012 at 2:42 am

    Funny the gov’t goes after Apple for gouging its customers $2 to $5 per e-book sale…? I wish the government were simply gouging me on voluntary purchases which I could simply forgo…? But the government is gouging me for a phone line I never use, every time I flush the toilet, multiple times when I fill the gas tank or my boiler turns on, every time the Fed prints money…? And they want carbon credits, tolls and premiums for rush hour driving???? Welcome to the USSA!



  6. gillie28 on April 12, 2012 at 3:32 am

    Next tax: exhaling – will be known as the carbon emissions sub-tax.? Other bodily function taxes to follow.



    • Lynn on April 12, 2012 at 8:35 am

      Gillie, You are a true hero. I am shell shocked from reading this post. You can still find humor. Thanks, I needed that…



  7. phil on April 12, 2012 at 8:34 am

    Highway robbers no longer need a gun!



  8. JBS on April 12, 2012 at 8:58 am

    Stinkfoot is right, expenditures are THE problem. A tax on medical services is just a ruse, a ploy to get more money. Our government is like an alcoholic. Promises to get clean and straight vanish the instant the money is in hand. Unlike the alcoholic who heads for the booze, the government projects income and then spends ten or a hundred times what is figured to be coming in. That is a Taxaholic morphing into a Spendaholic. The worst of the worst (like our current president).
    NO NEW TAXES! Repeal current taxes! A tax on medical services is just a ruse. A tax on individual CO2 and methane emissions is just another form of the ploy. (Don’t give them any ideas)
    Any money confiscated by this government as taxes just feeds the spending disease.
    Dims, the CT lottery came into being to fund education. HA! LOL! Right. A year later, the lottery income went into the general fund, to the delight of salivating politicians.



  9. Tim-in-Alabama on April 12, 2012 at 11:24 am

    I’ll likely end up having cataract surgery this year, and I should pay extra for that privilege.



    • Lynn on April 12, 2012 at 4:39 pm

      Sorry, Tim. We need to repeal Obamacare!



    • Tim-in-Alabama on April 13, 2012 at 12:07 am

      If we had Obamacare, my surgery would be free and rich people would pay my premiums and deductibles. They got rich under Bush. They should share some of that wealth.



  10. Eric on April 12, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    I am just amazed at the things that liberals think we should be taxed for. ?Utterly amazed. ?In fact these “tax ‘m ’till they’re dead” politicians have no shame at all. ?These guys should have their names published publicly along with every one of these bills that they think we all need!



  11. Truthseeker on April 13, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    This just keeps on getting worse.?? I think we all agree there are problems with health care, but ObamaCare ain’t the solution.



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