Bush plan to provide health care, keep government small

Everyone gets sick. Everyone needs adequate health care at some point in his life. Many… Everyone gets sick. Everyone needs adequate health care at some point in his life. Many people are fortunate enough to be supplied health care through their employer. What about the 17 million Americans who are their own employer? What about the millions of people who do not have a job that supplies them with health care?

Many people would like to use the fact that 46 million Americans do not have adequate health coverage as a means to create government-controlled health care. Some people would like to see a system similar to Canada’s government-controlled health care – where efficiency and quality are terrible – instituted in America. But luckily for America, George W. Bush has a plan to expand health care coverage to millions of Americans without making Big Brother even bigger.

The present health care situation is incredibly unfair. People who are given employer-based health care have unlimited tax relief by excluding the value of these health benefits from their taxable income. The self-employed or anyone who buys their own insurance does so with after-tax dollars. Some people do not have enough after-tax dollars to afford health care at all.

The president’s plan is trying to fix these problems by proposing a simpler, more equitable approach. Bush initially laid out his plan during his State of the Union address last month. His plan calls for a dramatic change in the tax code as a means to help millions afford health care. The plan counts health care benefits as wage income, and it would be taxed accordingly.

This sounds like a huge tax increase on Americans, but the plan allows a $15,000 tax deduction for a family buying their own insurance, and $7,500 for an individual, to offset the increase in taxable income. Keep in mind that last year, the average family group plan cost $11,480, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

If an employer provides an employee and his family with health care and the premiums are valued under $15,000, then health care is essentially free for that family, who would also receive a tax break. This method will lower taxes for approximately 80 percent of Americans, according to the White House. People who have gold-plated health care policies, such as corporate CEOs, would receive a tax increase if their policy premiums are larger than $15,000 a year. It is estimated that this would happen to approximately 20 percent of Americans.

Bush’s plan also provides federal funds for state health care services. These funds will allow the chronically ill, hard-to-insure citizens and people who are deemed “uninsurable” by the market to receive health care from their state. This could be done through several avenues depending on the state’s health care policy.

Small-business lobbying groups, such as the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, praised the president’s plan. They feel it offers a market-based solution to the rising costs of employer-provided health care, while giving employees greater control of their health-care choices.

On the others side, labor unions and watchdog groups say the move will simply shift the burden of providing health care away from employers, leaving more employees without health-care insurance.

Whatever your view about health care is, President Bush has a tough job ahead of him trying to sell this idea to Congress and the American people. The issue of health care is extremely politically charged and personal. Business and labor unions have an agenda, and they know where to put their money to push their agenda. Many experts are considering Bush’s plan “dead on arrival” because of the current makeup of Congress. Democrats and Big Labor are as thick as thieves and will surely try to stop the idea before it has a chance to grow.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, on his Web site, said “Today, Starbucks spends more on health care than on coffee. GM spends more on health care than on steel. We can’t ask our companies to go head-to-head with foreign competitors with this burden on their backs.” This is not an endorsement for Bush’s plan, but an endorsement for government-controlled health care.

Bush’s plan probably is “dead on arrival.” Had it been suggested a few years earlier, it may have had a chance. But with Bush’s approval rating barely breaking 30 and a Democrat-controlled House and Senate in place, this plan has almost no chance of becoming law.

Health care is a paramount issue in America. Tens of millions of Americans are without basic health coverage. President Bush has offered a solution that may help alleviate some of this problem. He offered a solution that would give many Americans the opportunity to acquire health coverage without the need for government-controlled health care. But because of partisan politics and Big Labor’s big money, very little will be done to help those who need it.

If you want universal health care, move to Canada. I hears it works so well there. E-mail Joe at jjm43@pitt.edu.