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Will 'Dubya' be a good president.
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Right: [QB] Pop Quiz: What's the single biggest reason people don't have health insurance? They can't afford it, of course. Bush's solution is - you're going to love this - cut taxes. You get the sense that if someone broke their leg, Bush would advise them to take two tax cutsand call him in the morning. As the health care advocates at Families USA point out, Bush has proposed a tax credit of $2,000 per family to help people pay for health insurance. Trouble is, it's a shell game. A typical family health insurance plan runs $5,000 to $6,000 a year, which means a family that can't afford health care still has to come up with $3,000 or $4,000 (10 percent of their income if their income if they're around the national median income). No wonder Families USA calls Bush's proposal a "trivial response to a serious problem." Bush's call for medical savings accounts (MSAs) is another example of Bush prescribing tax cuts for every ailment. MSAs are great - if you're healthy and wealthy (like Bush). But if you're not, they're of no help. They are basically a tax shelter for rich people, allowing them to save money, tax free, for medical expenses. Most proposals allow you to set aside $5,000 in such shelters. If you don't spend it on medical care, you can keep it. Now, if you have an extra five-grand lying around, these are for you. But if you don't, MSAs wind up being an insurance policy with a deductible of $3 - $4,000. Some deal. But if you are healthy and wealthy they are a good deal. Experts say MSAs would only help about 10,000 people out of the 44.3 million who lack health insurance. But for those 10,000 they're great. They allow you to shelter more income from taxes, and still protect you against catastropic risk. So what's the harm? If you cherry-pick the healthy and wealthy out of the health insurance pool, you wind up raiing premiums for the rest of us - and cost the government about $4 billion in tax subsidies. So once again Bush has a proposal that would hurt the middle class and the poor, while helping the rich. How can you NOT admire this man's genius? -Paul Begala [/QB][/QUOTE]
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