I believe expanding Medicaid is the right thing to do, especially in times when so many people are unemployed or underemployed because businesses are sitting on profits instead of hiring (for evidence look to company profits and the stock market).
There are so many things that could be done to alleviate this problem if people put politics aside and put their thinking caps on. Medicaid payments need to be higher and we need to do more to recruit more people into the medical field, especially physicians, advance practice nurses, physician assistants who can diagnose and prescribe. Perhaps we need to have a way that medical school costs could be offset for those willing to work in underserved (rural) areas or with underserved populations (Medicaid, little or no insurance).
it’s time to start working on solving these types of problems instead of just reporting on the problem.
Are you willing to pay the additional taxes, most people are truly tapped out, because of all of the Obama tax increases.
I am willing to pay my fair share of taxes and believe that if all of us paid our fair share more jobs would be created that would help more people earn enough to be able to pay their fair share of taxes too. I found a Bloomberg article from which I pulled this quote:
[I]According to an analysis by Cartine, a married couple in New York with $600,000 in wages, $100,000 in qualified dividends and $300,000 in long-term capital gains – as well as $145,000 in itemized deductions for real estate taxes, mortgage interest and state and local taxes – would pay about 17 percent, or $37,000, more in U.S. taxes this year.
$450,000 Threshold
By comparison, a family with $600,000 in wages, no investment income and $105,000 in itemized deductions would see about a 2 percent, or $3,000 increase, he said. [/I]
I don’t feel sorry for these high earners especially since this article points out the many opportunities they have to reduce their tax burden. For example, the article ends with an investment advisor saying this:
“A lot of my clients are looking to buy very expensive assets that will pay a lot of sales tax, especially in Florida,” which doesn’t have a personal income tax, Kalb said. “If someone buys a $2 million boat this year they can get the deduction for sales taxes.”
While wealthy Florida residents are reducing their tax liability by buying $2 million yachts and writing off sales tax, Walmart employees are encouraged by their management to donate food to help their work colleagues. Others have to take on multiple jobs to support their families because they lost good jobs when their companies laid them off to send jobs overseas where they could get goods made cheaper so they could attract more stockholders. Some of those who got laid off or were encouraged to quit their jobs or couldn’t find a good job are people with kidney disease who could use expanded Medicaid to help them get the healthcare they need to protect the kidney function they have and (hopefully) prevent kidney failure. So, yes, I feel lucky to have a good job and am willing to pay taxes to help people like those on this message board and the people I used to work with who may not be as lucky as I am.