Letter to the editor..
No free lunch in Canada
David Manning mentions visiting a Canadian family of five whose health insurance premium is (only) $90 Canadian dollars per month (Letters, Friday, June 26).
This sounds like a deal until you look at the Canadian tax tables. The lowest federal rate is 15 percent, which applies to all income up to approximately $41,000 Canadian. To that you add a provincial rate that varies but is typically 12-15 percent.
The result is a total effective tax rate of about 27-30 percent in Canada’s lowest income brackets.
You will find that those rates aren’t reached in the U.S. until you are almost making enough to be considered “wealthy.” Sadly, there is never such thing as a free lunch.
— Michael Arvanetakis, Cypress
Mr Arvanetakis,
Consider the cost of a typical family HMO policy. Mine runs about $15,000 this year. If I was earning $41,000, that would come to 36% of my income for insurance that might bankrupt me if I ever had to use it. After that I have to pay my federal, state and local taxes, some of which go to pay for healthcare for the uninsured. Do the math!
-Chupy The Goat
posted by Julia B. @ 1:18 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Chupy,
Done the math; know the math. Ours is $1,200/month of which we pay "only" $600/month. A couple of years ago I had an eye injury, including damage to my optic nerve, which almost cost me my eye. I sat in the ER for 4 hours while kids with runny noses and fevers were treated. When the attending doc saw my condition he immediately had me transfered to the medical center (cost: $5,000 my insurance covered $1,000 so I figured I paid for a few other ambulance rides also)for an MRI and surgery. With eye damage minutes are critical so I have paid with limited eyesight to subsidize those that don't have insurance. Read HR3200 and you will find that there are committees after committees after committees that will determine your benefits, how much the providers will be paid, and how much you will pay. There is no provision to remove these committee members from lobbying or influence, so we are setting them up to be in a position to manage one of the largest sectors of our economy---and put it on our tab. No governance, no oversight, no reform. The worse of all worlds. I'm not stupid, but I'm from Texas.
Michael Arvanetakis
PS to Chupy,
Under HR3200 your employer pays 65-72% of the premium, and if you believe that all employers will pay this out of their revenue without passing this cost on to consumers, I have a bridge that I will sell you.
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