I'm not Joe the Plumber. I'm Pete the Architect from Massachusetts, and I just read a disturbing article in the Wall Street Journal about Senator Reid's proposed 40 percent tax on health insurance plans over $8,000. I live in that sole state where universal health care is guaranteed by the legal requirement to buy health insurance, or else pay a tax, fine, penalty or whatever they call it if you "chose" not to buy it. Surprise, I just made that elite group Reid is targeting with his new tax because my individual HMO health insurance premium is going from $6,483 annually to $9,453. Yes, that's a 46 percent increase! As a healthy, 50-year-old, non-smoking, non-obese single father and architect in today's economy, this cost is neither reasonable nor rational, and yet somehow "Taxachusetts" has made this a "non-discretionary" expense for me by law.
Can it really be that Reid is planning to tax $3,781 on top of the $9,453 that I cannot pay in the first place?
But wait a minute, if I can't afford the 46 percent increase, and I'm forced to accept a lower priced plan paying "co-insurance" (which really means I will pay much more out of pocket and a little less in premiums so the insurance company can remain profitable, duh), then I won't be in that high value insurance plan anymore.
Say, doesn't that mean Reid won't be getting any additional tax revenue out of me?
Many Americans will soon cheapen their coverage, as I must, and when they do, Reid will not get the revenue needed for his universal health care and, surprise, another new tax will appear.
What Mr. Reid really needs to know, along with that Pelosi character and Obama, is that there is simply no way on God's green earth that the government can force me to pay for something I do not have the money to buy (unless, of course, health care becomes a completely government-run entity like our military).
The reality of the Massachusetts experiment with universal health care is that it has dramatically increased premiums to the point where I cannot afford them, effectively busting the myth that having everyone insured will lower the cost for all. It does not.
For the record, I paid $3,000 for 12 months of COBRA coverage in 2005 as a former employee. I paid a premium of $4,260 for my individual plan under a small business group in 2006, which then rose from $4,752 for 2007 to $5,700 for 2008, and is now jumping from $6,480 for 2009 to $9,453 for 2010. The sad reality of universal "health insurance" is that it will eventually make everyone dependent on the government for care. But maybe that's what Reid, Pelosi and Obama want for us all anyway. I pray enough Americans will stand up and say change course...it's the MATH stupid.
- PETE LINN
Pete Linn of Natick is an architect.
