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Health care: If it's a tax on the vendor, it's a tax on the patient

September 17, 2009

The long dance of the "Gang of Six," including Senator Grassley, has ended with nobody going home together. Senator Baucus proposed a new step on the road to government destruction of private health care with no Republican support.

The Baucus bill has a number of tax increases, the biggest of which is a tax on health insurers offering "Cadillac" plans. Of course, that's just a sneaky way of taxing the insureds. The bill would also impose taxes on "health insurance companies, large pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and clinical labs," according to TaxVox. These are, again, a tax on patients. The bill would give a few crumbs back in the form of mostly-useless tax credits for small employers of low-paid workers. Another tax would be imposed on folks who choose not to buy health insurance.

The bill does not include the "millionaire's surtax" that was in earlier bills. Its tax increases, in fact, would fall exactly on the "middle income" class that President Obama says will not face tax increases. He no doubt will announce his opposition to the Baucus bill any time now.

Kay Bell has more.