My Opinion on the Obama Cadillac Tax

The way that the Cadillac Bill has evolved is that it will now apply to plans for individuals whose cost exceeds $8,500 or for families that exceed $23,000. Wouldn't you like to know who exactly came up with these figures? What that would mean is that the tax payers' insurance rates will go up.

From where I stand this isn't going to make a bit of difference. We either get health care reform and individual costs are going to go up or we don't get health care reform and costs go up. What are we trading here? This is not reform.

This tax is going to affect people like myself who have been forced into early retirement. If early retirees are lucky enough to get or afford health insurance, by the time the government gets done with us we won't be able to afford the health plans that we have now. The cost of my current plan is $24,000 to cover myself and spouse. We are older and pay more because we are in a retiree health plan. If we didn't have this plan, we would not be able to have health insurance at all because of pre-existing conditions. My premium this year alone increased by just over 17%. We didn't retire because we wanted to; we retired because we were forced to. With jobs being scarce, age becomes a big factor in trying to find a new job.

The rises in premiums that have been predicted if we don't have health care are already happening to older Americans. It's happening to the individuals in the 55+ age bracket who are still too young for Medicare but are finding more and more often that they are out of a job. There is no doubt that health care reform is necessary. That's not being disputed. What is being disputed is the way that our government has chosen to go about reform.

There are things that could help now. Instead of passing monumental health care reform, I'm in favor of doing things incrementally. The economic condition of the country dictates that we go slowly with this. President Obama seems to be in a rush to push this country into massive debt and an overly bloated government. Our legislators spend money in stupid ridiculous ways without regard for the consequences of their spending.

Americans are struggling trying to make ends meet, searching for jobs to feed their families, and keep a roof over their head. Yet we can spend millions for our government leaders to fly off to Copenhagen.

Did you ever hear about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire?

Am I in favor of President Obama's Cadillac tax? No, this is a bad idea.

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/11/cbsnews_investigates/main6084364.shtml
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/07/nation/la-na-health-obama7-2010jan07