Dean on Hardball says he is offended by Bush's health care plan. Video.

[madfloridian]

I looked at the SOTU transcript at MSNBC, and read the part about the plan. It was very confusing to me. It is not way to solve our health care problems as far as I could figure.

From the Hardball video:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=ab2d67a5-b6a9-4921-a143-d5e92825155d&f=00&fg=email

DEAN: "I'm particularly offended by the health care plan, which essentially imposes a tax on middle class Americans. It gives a big tax break, again, for those at the top. That has been a recurring pattern in this presidency."

Dean said that what had been leaked about the speech indicated he was going to say that a good health care plan above the average is income and ought to be taxed.

Looks like many are agreeing. Here is a website allowing comments.

http://www.benefitnews.com/health/detail.cfm?id=10025

A sample:

"** Let's face it, the doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are getting wealthy on the present system. How does this address that. CDHP my foot. That pushes most of the cost on to the employee. John Kerry had a plan of government re-insurance to cover all large cases, that could work."

"I do not believe Bush's proposal will work, simply because even with the tax break, the premiums would be far out of reach for the majority of people who are uninsured. How many families can afford $1,000 to $1,500 per month in premiums? What kind of tax break would make that amount bearable?"

"** I'm concerned about the money that would have been collected - is that money going to reduce the budgets for SSA and/or other social programs that coincide with the benefits some populations are presently getting?

If so,then I would be NOT in favor of Bush's proposal. I think it would be very alarming to alter the funding or care current social recipients get that's dependent on that generated revenue."

** "Just another way of placing even greater burdens on the backs of people who work for a living to find a way to give to those who don't!!!!!!"

** "I am totally amazed that the bureaucrats on Capitol Hill think that the average middle class person has an unlimited source of hidden money somewhere to fund Health Savings Accounts, Health Retirement Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts, their own retirement fund, and have enough money left over to keep a roof over their families’ heads, and food on the table."

[midnight]

1. Thank you Dr. Dean for pointing out the tax break for the rich

on another area of life that the working class actually needs. What did bush learn at business school?

[silverojo]

5. The same thing everyone learns at business school:

"F*ck the poor!" :mad:

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Bless you Dr.! May Congress hear his points and concur

[iamjoy]

3. It's A Crock

he (Dubya) was talking about people with employer based plans saving money on taxes.

Most participants of employer based plans pay for their benefits pre-tax, that is - the employee portion of the health insurance premium is deducted from said employee's paycheck before federal income taxes and payroll taxes. This is how it already is.

From what I heard (not during SOTU) - Dubya wants to set a limit on the amount that can be deducted pre-tax. The limit would be (per year) $7000 individ, $15,000 family.

There is precedent for this, Employer provided Life Insurance with a policy amount over $50,000 is subject to taxation. Originally set up to have the wealthy contribute their share, we now know it is a joke. If you have a family, $50,000 is not nearly enough Life Insurance.

Now, that may sound like a lot now. But consider that family plans for comprehensive coverage can already go for $12,000. That's the full premium, not what the employee pays, but that gives you an idea of what plans cost. Consider that this past year, group insurance premiums increased around 8% and that's considered LOW. In other recent years, we have seen double digit increases in health care premiums. So, even if the credit is indexed to inflation, we will soon be taxing the middle class on their health insurance.


And of course, if Dubya really wants to make it "fair" he would stop fighting gay marriage so much. This way, if a company did decide to offer Domestic Partner benefits, those benefits would be tax deductable too.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. numbers I heard today...

average cost of insurance for a family of four for one year - $12,000

under the shrubs plan, a family with an income of $40,000 per year would only be eligible for $2,200 back, a family who makes $120,000 would get $4,500 back.

and the ones who make so little that they don't pay taxes anyway, would get nothing back. (as if they could afford insurance anyway).

sounds like a bunch of crap to me.

[calimary]

4. Five votes for the Good Doctor and his truth-telling.

No second opinion needed.

[karynnj]

6. Very nice statement

I'm glad that he explains it so clearly - I thought he said that people with insurance from employers would be taxed on it - but was confused as he had just said that he was against raising taxes.

It was nice of him to mention the castastropic part of Senator Kerry's plan.

[madfloridian]

7. Dean spoke more about Bush's health care plans on CNN with Blitzer right after that.

He seemed genuinely offended by the plans Bush put forth for health care.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/23/sitroom.02.html

"BLITZER: Before you became a politician, you were a physician. You're still a physician. What do you make of the president's new health care initiative that's designed to make health -- health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans?

DEAN: Of course, it won't do that. It's very much like Iraq and all the other things the president's been saying -- he says one thing and does something else.

Let me tell you what the president's health care plan does. It offers a $7,500 tax deduction. The problem with that is if you're only making $50,000 a year or less, you can't use that deduction because you don't pay that much in taxes, in income taxes.

So what he does is tax the middle class people -- because he's now going to tax your health care plan -- he taxes middle class people and uses that to give tax deductions to people at the upper end of the income scale.

Once again, the president is very good to his people who support his campaign and support him, not so great to the 80 percent of Americans he left behind. This is the wrong way to go, the opposite direction from the direction we should be going in. You cannot fix health care by taxing health care benefits for ordinary Americans and then giving enormous tax deductions to the people at the top.

Amen to that.

[ellisonz]

9. Tweety: I mean Hillary is the most known person in the country next to Bill.

:argh:

[madfloridian]

20. Matthews would not shut up about Hillary.

He just keeps running his mouth. He doesn't allow people to get words in.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. On the bright side

it opened the barn door to dicusion

This country NEEDS national single payer health insurance, PERIOD

[Hieronymus]

11. Good for Dean. It's an absurd plan.

:applause:

[madfloridian]

12. Absurd is the correct word.

Only Bush and his bunch would come up with something like that.

[JNelson6563]

13. K&R More truth from Dean!

Keep takin' it to 'em Howard! :toast:

[kineneb]

14. plan would not do **** for the poor uninsured

Hey, President Dipwad- we don't have enough income to pay taxes. So what in the hell good would your asinine proposal do for us? Unless you are going to offer free medical care for the poor, STFU!

[ProudDad]

15. STOP, STOP, STOP and THINK

Don't waste time over *'s phony "proposal"! It's a red herring just meant to make us waste our time and energy.

GET BEHIND CONYER'S HR676

http://www.house.gov/conyers/news_hr676_2.htm

On Edit: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/4/75654/91637


And in California -- Sheila Kuehl's SB840 -- http://www.healthcareforall.org/


Health care IS a RIGHT not a privilege!!

[madfloridian]

16. It is important to call attention to the faults of what Bush said.

I see Senator Bill Nelson blasted Bush's plan today as well, but I can't find it in the online edition.

We must point out its faults.

[jgraz]

17. Thanks for the info MadFlo!

:hi:

[jgraz]

18. The link not longer goes to the video, but it's worth hunting around for

Dean is just awesome. Such an inspired choice for head of the DNC.

[madfloridian]

19. It takes me right to the video...I mailed to myself again.

and it still works...just has an ad first.

Try this:

Click this link

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=ab2d67a5-b6a9-4921-a143-d5e92825155d&f=00&fg=email

It was a great interview.

[ellisonz]

21. Bush wishes death to us all.