I teach college and one of my students died this year because of lack of adequate health care. He had severe diabetes that required he pump insulin directly into his stomach. He lived alone and went into a diabetic coma that killed him. All he needed was a pump that would periodically check his blood sugar and make adjustments, but he couldn't afford it. I would gladly pay more in taxes to help someone like him. For the life of me, I can't understand why in the richest country in the world, our citizens take to streets to keep from helping people, at the expense of a few dollars here or there.
Anonymous - First, University students in Ohio are required to purchase health insurance through the State-run University system if they do not have private health insurance. I guess the State-run healthcare system your student was on failed him. Why would you want to force the same failure on society as a whole.
Second, We could fill an entire blog with stories that display the failure of government run healthcare systems to provide adequate care. Government run healthcare kills tens of thousand of people every year.
Hamilton County Taxpayer: The university health plans are not run by the state or the University. Some Universities (such as UC) provide health care services to open the student body just as they provide health care services to everyone else (ever heard of UC Physicians or UC Hospital???).
The insurers are still private insurers, and the plans are just like the ones you'd get working for P&G or other large employers like Universities.
The story described by Anonymous is a story of a failure in the private health care market.
Where do you think University Hospital gets its money to operate? The government. Federal medicare/medicaid money, and local money too. Ever hear of Hamilton County's indigent care levy which goes to fund University Hospital? Failure of state run mandated healthcare.
For more than a decade, a powerful group of special-interest organizations has waged a multimillion-dollar campaign to turn public opinion against a tax that falls on the wealthiest 2 percent of the population. It worked. The "death tax," many Americans now believe, afflicts family farmers and small-business owners, robbing them of the opportunity to bequeath their lives' fortunes to their children.
The people pushing this line include the heirs to the Gallo wine and Mars candy fortunes, along with an organized association of more than 100 independent newspaper owners. Together with a veritable antitax industry of think tanks and lobbying firms in Washington, these groups have formed a potent "death tax elimination" lobby.
Of course, the vast majority of family farmers will never owe an estate tax. Rather, the windfall of estate tax repeal will shower upon the heirs and heiresses of the 3,000 wealthiest estates. This elite group will inherit billions in appreciated stock and real estate -- significant capital gains, many of which have never been subject to taxation.
Why do we raise the issue now? Because in a matter of days the Senate will decide whether to make permanent the 2001 repeal of the estate tax. It's an issue that has scarcely made the news, but its consequences will profoundly affect the health of the republic.
Many Americans believe that the estate tax debate has already played out. After all, the tax's phase-out and eventual repeal were included in the $1.35 trillion tax cut that President Bush signed into law last June.
But the Bush tax bill includes such a puzzling assortment of phase-outs, delayed activation dates, and gimmicks that money guru Jane Bryant Quinn called it "a contemptible piece of consumer fraud." To mask the bill's enormous cost in outlying years, its authors included a "sunset" provision: At the end of 2010, tax rules revert to those in effect as of May 2001.
Predictably, the original patrons of the tax bill -- some of whom have spent millions in campaign contributions, political advertising, and lobbying fees to abolish the estate tax -- find the sunset provision unacceptable. They urgently wish to make repeal of the estate tax permanent. And if they don't succeed in doing so now, the odds will soon be against them, as budget deficits grow and the cost of repeal escalates.
If, however, the Senate bows to this lobby's pressures by permanently repealing the estate tax, the country stands to lose $800 billion between 2011 and 2021. It's a loss that will significantly undercut Social Security and Medicare over the next seven decades, hitting hard as the eldest baby boomers reach retirement age.
The United States also stands to lose one of its most progressive federal taxes. Only estates worth more than $1 million (or $2 million for couples) are subject to the tax -- and the bulk of it is paid by the fewer than 3,000 estates with assets in excess of $5 million. Thanks to the Bush tax cut, between now and 2009 the exemptions will rise to $3.5 million for an individual ($7 million for couples).
Some people object to the notion of a tax at death, but taxing dead multimillionaires is eminently more fair than taxing the not-so-rich living. Between now and 2052, the intergenerational transfer of wealth is projected to reach between $41 trillion and $136 trillion. An estimated one-third to one-half of this wealth will be transferred by estates worth more than $5 million. The estate tax, should it remain in place, will therefore be an increasingly significant progressive source of revenue in the coming decades. Meanwhile, state budgets, already straining from plummeting tax revenues, will lose more than $6.5 billion a year when state-linked revenue from the estate tax is eliminated in 2005.
The End Ohio Estate Tax campaign is just that, a campaign to end Ohio's punative estate tax, not the federal. Ohio is one of only 20 states that still has an estate tax and of those, we have the smallest exemption of $338,000. This has an extremely adverse affect on small business and farms and is a leading cause of people leaving our state. Other states have gotten rid of their tax or greatly raised the exemption on their own as they could see it was having a net negative on their state. Unfortunately Ohio hasn't seen that light yet. If you would like more information, please see www.endohioestatetax.com
I teach college and one of my students died this year because of lack of adequate health care. He had severe diabetes that required he pump insulin directly into his stomach. He lived alone and went into a diabetic coma that killed him. All he needed was a pump that would periodically check his blood sugar and make adjustments, but he couldn't afford it. I would gladly pay more in taxes to help someone like him. For the life of me, I can't understand why in the richest country in the world, our citizens take to streets to keep from helping people, at the expense of a few dollars here or there.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -
ReplyDeleteFirst, University students in Ohio are required to purchase health insurance through the State-run University system if they do not have private health insurance. I guess the State-run healthcare system your student was on failed him. Why would you want to force the same failure on society as a whole.
Second, We could fill an entire blog with stories that display the failure of government run healthcare systems to provide adequate care. Government run healthcare kills tens of thousand of people every year.
Hamilton County Taxpayer: The university health plans are not run by the state or the University. Some Universities (such as UC) provide health care services to open the student body just as they provide health care services to everyone else (ever heard of UC Physicians or UC Hospital???).
ReplyDeleteThe insurers are still private insurers, and the plans are just like the ones you'd get working for P&G or other large employers like Universities.
The story described by Anonymous is a story of a failure in the private health care market.
Where do you think University Hospital gets its money to operate? The government. Federal medicare/medicaid money, and local money too. Ever hear of Hamilton County's indigent care levy which goes to fund University Hospital? Failure of state run mandated healthcare.
ReplyDeleteThe Real Facts on The Estate Tax
ReplyDeleteFor more than a decade, a powerful group of special-interest organizations has waged a multimillion-dollar campaign to turn public opinion against a tax that falls on the wealthiest 2 percent of the population. It worked. The "death tax," many Americans now believe, afflicts family farmers and small-business owners, robbing them of the opportunity to bequeath their lives' fortunes to their children.
The people pushing this line include the heirs to the Gallo wine and Mars candy fortunes, along with an organized association of more than 100 independent newspaper owners. Together with a veritable antitax industry of think tanks and lobbying firms in Washington, these groups have formed a potent "death tax elimination" lobby.
Of course, the vast majority of family farmers will never owe an estate tax. Rather, the windfall of estate tax repeal will shower upon the heirs and heiresses of the 3,000 wealthiest estates. This elite group will inherit billions in appreciated stock and real estate -- significant capital gains, many of which have never been subject to taxation.
Why do we raise the issue now? Because in a matter of days the Senate will decide whether to make permanent the 2001 repeal of the estate tax. It's an issue that has scarcely made the news, but its consequences will profoundly affect the health of the republic.
Many Americans believe that the estate tax debate has already played out. After all, the tax's phase-out and eventual repeal were included in the $1.35 trillion tax cut that President Bush signed into law last June.
But the Bush tax bill includes such a puzzling assortment of phase-outs, delayed activation dates, and gimmicks that money guru Jane Bryant Quinn called it "a contemptible piece of consumer fraud." To mask the bill's enormous cost in outlying years, its authors included a "sunset" provision: At the end of 2010, tax rules revert to those in effect as of May 2001.
Predictably, the original patrons of the tax bill -- some of whom have spent millions in campaign contributions, political advertising, and lobbying fees to abolish the estate tax -- find the sunset provision unacceptable. They urgently wish to make repeal of the estate tax permanent. And if they don't succeed in doing so now, the odds will soon be against them, as budget deficits grow and the cost of repeal escalates.
If, however, the Senate bows to this lobby's pressures by permanently repealing the estate tax, the country stands to lose $800 billion between 2011 and 2021. It's a loss that will significantly undercut Social Security and Medicare over the next seven decades, hitting hard as the eldest baby boomers reach retirement age.
The United States also stands to lose one of its most progressive federal taxes. Only estates worth more than $1 million (or $2 million for couples) are subject to the tax -- and the bulk of it is paid by the fewer than 3,000 estates with assets in excess of $5 million. Thanks to the Bush tax cut, between now and 2009 the exemptions will rise to $3.5 million for an individual ($7 million for couples).
Some people object to the notion of a tax at death, but taxing dead multimillionaires is eminently more fair than taxing the not-so-rich living. Between now and 2052, the intergenerational transfer of wealth is projected to reach between $41 trillion and $136 trillion. An estimated one-third to one-half of this wealth will be transferred by estates worth more than $5 million. The estate tax, should it remain in place, will therefore be an increasingly significant progressive source of revenue in the coming decades. Meanwhile, state budgets, already straining from plummeting tax revenues, will lose more than $6.5 billion a year when state-linked revenue from the estate tax is eliminated in 2005.
Full Story Here:
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/11/gates-w.html
The End Ohio Estate Tax campaign is just that, a campaign to end Ohio's punative estate tax, not the federal. Ohio is one of only 20 states that still has an estate tax and of those, we have the smallest exemption of $338,000. This has an extremely adverse affect on small business and farms and is a leading cause of people leaving our state. Other states have gotten rid of their tax or greatly raised the exemption on their own as they could see it was having a net negative on their state. Unfortunately Ohio hasn't seen that light yet.
ReplyDeleteIf you would like more information, please see www.endohioestatetax.com
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2978052/Toilet-brush-blunder-death.html
ReplyDeleteGreat Britain's National Health Servvice kills yet another citizen with their poor care.
The last line of the article is from the deceased's surviving husband -
"Cindy got a very poor service from the NHS. I'm sure she would have got better treatment in foreign countries."
See, I can provide observational evidence too.