It's Only Shocking If You Weren't Paying Attention...

Health tax may wallop towns

Massachusetts municipalities that offer employees, retirees, and elected officials the most generous and costly health insurance plans will feel the squeeze of the new national health care law’s tax on “Cadillac’’ insurance plans.

A family health plan that costs more than $27,500 would be subject to a 40 percent tax on every dollar spent above that threshold. The tax, set to take effect in 2018, would be levied on insurers, who would probably pass it on to municipalities and other employers. A few cities and towns already have family plans that exceed $27,500, and many others are on track to surpass that level before the tax kicks in.

How ironic is it that they're referring to these plans as "Cadillac" plans when the FedGov has a controlling interest in General Motors, parent company to Cadillac? The irony becomes even thicker when you realize that these plans cover city employees - and as such, the people who will bear the full brunt of the increase will be, yes, you guessed it, the taxpayers in each respective city and town. This is very nearly a perfect storm of kickback and palm-greasing, whereby the health care plan passed only through chicanery, graft, and naked vote-buying. The proponents of the bill greased the palms of the unions for support, promising to exempt them from the taxes - only to push those taxes off on to the towns.

What's interesting is that this isn't going to go into effect until 2018. If health care is such a pressing, universal need, why is the implementation date nearly half a generation off? If getting coverage to those "46 million without insurance", why are we going at it by half-measures that won't kick in for years? There's obviously more at stake here, with subtle machinations intended to lever the insurance and health care industries towards one goal or another. The more cynical would claim it's the government moving to place health care entirely under governmental control, much like utilities or public safety. It's hard to argue with that point of view as the deck gets stacked against insurance companies that provide health care insurance - who are probably scrambling to divest themselves of that market in the next four to eight years - as well as health care providers who can surely see the writing on the wall.

It is absolutely imperative, then, to keep the pressure on Washington. Keep momentum up through November - vote out anyone who voted for this fiasco - to send a clear message that going against the clear will of the American people will bring dire political consequences. Elect representatives who will work to repeal - not scale back, repeal - this monstrosity before it gets a chance to destroy our world-class medical system. As stated in my last post, when one side has to resort to lies, distortions, half-truths and such to get their point across, it's a weak argument; simultaneously if there must be graft, kick-backs, exemptions, and special sweetheart deals cut to get a bill passed - against the clear wishes of the consituency - then it bears a second look. And a third look. And perhaps even reading the damn thing, all 2,000+ pages.

Unless, of course, we really do want to become "Sweden with NASCAR"...

That is all.