As well as you did in last night’s debate, there was one particular area where you could have really excelled. You have a gift for being able to explain each candidate’s policies in terms that Main Street America will understand, but you allowed a golden opportunity to just slip right through your fingers. Case and point:
- Joe works for An Itsy-Bitsy Company and pays $2000 a year in federal taxes.
- An Itsy-Bitsy Company does not provide health insurance for Joe.
- Mary works for A Big Conglomerate and pays $1000 a year in federal taxes.
- A Big Conglomerate provides health insurance for Mary who has a modest amount deducted from her paycheck to help defray the cost of that insurance.
- The American Medical Association1 estimates that the government is giving more than $125 billion — between $1500 and $2500 per employee — in tax breaks to employers who offer health insurance.
Huh? My calculator says that at least 25% of Joe’s tax dollars are being used to subsidize Mary’s health insurance — a benefit to which Joe is neither entitled nor able to pay for out of his own pocket.
So which candidate’s plan is going to give Joe the most control over his health coverage and ease the financial burden of providing for his family?
Say what? Don’t tell me… tell Joe. And keep telling him over and over until he gets it, because November 4 is going to change his life. It’s up to him as to whether that change is going to be good or bad.
References:
1 http://voicefortheuninsured.org/amaproposal2.html