WP,pg1: Bush to Propose New Tax Breaks for Medical Expenses

[DeepModem Mom]

New Tax Breaks for Medical Expenses
Bush to Propose Wider Deductions
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; Page A01


President Bush will propose that Americans be allowed to take tax deductions on more of their out-of pocket medical expenses, as part of an initiative the White House believes will rein in soaring health costs by shifting responsibility toward individuals, according to congressional and other sources familiar with the administration's thinking.

The new tax breaks for personal health spending, to be included in the 2007 budget Bush will release in less than two weeks, is designed to help the uninsured and to allow people with insurance to write off a greater portion of the money they spend on co-payments, deductibles and care that is not covered. Under current tax rules, people can write off medical expenses only if they exceed 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income.

The president also plans to call for an expansion of health savings accounts, an idea long favored by conservatives and approved by Congress slightly more than two years ago, in which people who buy bare-bones insurance policies are allowed to put money into tax-free accounts for their medical expenses.

Bush also intends to propose changes to allow people to keep their insurance, without extra cost, if they change jobs or decide to start a business, building on a decade-old law that was designed to make health coverage more "portable."

The three proposals -- and possibly others -- are part of a renewed effort by the White House to tackle medical costs, a theme that administration officials said yesterday Bush intends to emphasize in his State of the Union address next week. The health initiative also represents one of the few areas in which the president will try to create new domestic policies through what he and aides have said will be an austere budget....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/24/AR2006012401838.html

[kurth]

1. Everything he touches turns to shit

We need a single-payer, universal health coverage system - under a DEMOCRATIC administration.

[NewJeffCT]

2. The codeword is "consumer driven health"

However, it really means leaving the individual at the mercy of Big Pharmaceutical and Big Health Insurance. I'm sure many middle class folks can afford a lawyer to combat the legal team that $40 billion United Health can throw at you.

Now, with these new high deductible plans, you have to make the decision "Is the pain bad enough for me to go to the doctor?" Because, unless you exceed your deductible, the cost is coming out of your pocket directly.

[Straight Shooter]

3. "Is the pain bad enough for me to go to the doctor?"

You nailed it. Eventually it leads to, "Am I going to die if I don't do something about this?"

[leesa]

4. Don't worry, if you die grandly enough you'll get a tax break next year.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Are you fucking kidding me?

It's getting to be an old joke that these idiots propose tax breaks for anything and everything, despite the fact that it doesn't fucking work. But, to quote the old Smiths song, that joke isn't funny anymore. Next these douchebags will propose tax cuts to get a fucking highway built: y'know, consumer-driven road construction...

[Trillo]

6. "health saving accounts"

won't help anyone except for those who have enough disposable income to save. And watch the deduction still have a threshold below which it can't be taken, nor allow it to be expensed like a business writes off a cost.

[rodeodance]

12. suspect Bush will educate us all on this. te he

[rodeodance]

13. his job is to Eduuuuucaaaate us all.

[FloridaPat]

7. We must thank Reagan for the 7.5%. Part of his "tax simplification".

I don't have health insurance because I can't afford $800 a month. It's been 3 years, so I'm up almost $29,000. Also unemployed. So how does this help rising costs? People just won't go to doctors so they'll lower their prices?

Should be intersting to see companies keep paying for people when they quit. So what's the catch? Where's all the money go?

[msongs]

8. exactly like the social security scheme - same response is required..

the medical crap is the equivalent of the bush social security scam. the same techniques that killed the
ss fraud would be suitable and useful to kill this turkey.

heard a gagging news commentary recently that reviewed bush's last year and said the ss scheme had been buried
by events such as katrina, iraq, etc. sorry stupid, it was not buried, it died because people were too smart
to fall for it.

swift boat the new medical proposals!

we know justice alito is gonna support it.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/dean2008.htm

[preciousdove]

9. Do hospitals accept tax breaks? :sarcasm:

[appleannie1]

10. Where in the hell

does he expect people to find the money to put in a health account after this administration screwed us on their energy bill? Most people today consider themselves lucky if they can afford to be warm.

[rodeodance]

11. the bubble he lives in shields him from such knowledge.

[cornermouse]

14. So we're supposed to pay for the medical care with money

that we don't have (does he have ANY idea how expensive it is to go to the hospital for even 1 day?), in the hopes of getting a tax break?

We've seen how he handled Iraq, Katrina, and his drug plan for seniors. By the way, you do realize that he has already said he won't reimburse the states for plugging up the his plan's holes, don't you?

I think George needs a nice long vacation from running the country. Say about 3 years?

[zann725]

15. Bottom-line...the ONLY people benefitting from this'll end up being those

who can MOST afford the med and insurance costs...and the tax attorneys to get them the medical-related deductions one way or another anyway.

I remain unimpressed. This is far too compassionate for the REAL Shrub to be in anyway involved. Once the details emerge...

Any doubts? Just emember the NEW "Part D" Medicare drug "benefit" for the elderly and disabled...which almost wholly benefits ONLY the Drug companies.

[0007]

16. junior is the most confused in the history of mankind.

junior knows how to take care of the people, eh?