Jan
6
Class Warfare - Yes; Solutions - No
Filed Under Healthcare | Leave a Comment
With Congress currently working on healthcare reform, many pundits on TV, online, and in print have been analyzing what effect the current Democrat bills would have. While all of the consequences of enacting either the House or Senate legislation are important, I think it also underscores a key flaw of the healthcare reform bills. Rather than solving existing issues with the current healthcare system, it is simply creating new ones. Analysts must devote their time to figuring out all of the new obstacles being enacted without proposing solutions to the problems already present.
Also, the healthcare bills and their subsequent amendments seem to be driven not by reality and economics, but by anger and emotional class warfare. Take this amendment offered in December by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas):
Washington – U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) today unveiled her plan to cut the current $1 million tax shelter for insurance companies’ executive compensation. Current law allows businesses to deduct up to $1 million annually per executive as a business expense. Lincoln’s proposal would limit this amount to $400,000—the President’s salary—for health insurance companies that will profit as a result of health insurance reform.
Compensation, even for executives, is a business expense. It should be included with all other expenses and deducted from income when filing taxes. Moreover, there is no credible reason why executive compensation should be at all considered when enacting any kind of healthcare reform legislation. Blaming insurance issues on executive compensation is like blaming the coach’s salary for a holding penalty.
It also shows that expansive entitlements and legislation will innevitably lead to more and more political control over our personal and professional lives.
There are plenty of other examples out there of these kind of class-warfare shenanigans (when we’re allowed to see what’s going on). The question I would have for voters is this: Do you want your healthcare being decided by politics, as this amendment suggests, or by reality between you and your doctor, and the applicable costs at hand? I would assume many would choose the latter. Unfortunately, however, the Democrat Party seems to be favoring the former.
