buying into social security/medicare/medicaid

[mopinko]

why can't people buy into these programs?? if i am a low paid worker, why can't i pay the maximum fica tax to insure my retirement, and get the disability and survivor's benefits if i need them? if i am uninsured, why can't i pay the per person cost of these programs, and get coverage?? does anyone know what that per person cost is?

[FloridaPat]

1. Maximum FICA tax goes up every year. Right now it's

around $80,000, I think. Let's say you're making $30,000. You would have to pay 15% of $50,000 or $7,500. yo can be the employers arenb't going to pay their "share" of this. Of the $30,000 you're making, probably $6,000 is going to taxes. Take off $3,000 for an IRA. That leaves $21,000. How many people can take a third of what they clear and put it into Social Security?

Now on the other hand, say you're making $300,0000. You pay no FICA on the 220,000, thereby getting a nice tax cut. Then if you making $15 million on a bonus, again, not paying FICA.

[SharonAnn]

2. You already pay into Social Security

You already pay into Social Security from the FICA tax on your wages which is a percentage of your earnings. If you are disabled you will receive Social Security disability. If you die, dependents will get survivor's benefits.

For Medicare, you are eligible when you are 65. That's it.

For Medicaid, which is primarily paid by the state taxpayers as well as federal taxpayers, you have to "qualify". In other words, your income must be below a certain level.

And, the per person cost might not be affordable to you, even if it were allowed.

[happyslug]

3. You are already in all those programs

But Medicare does not kick in until you are 65, and SOcial Security Disability only applies to people who suffer from a disability (or combination of disabilities) that prevent a person from doing work that "exists in substaintial numbers in the National Economy".

Thus you are working at minumum wage you are paying into Social Security Retirement AND Social Security Disability coverage. The problem is you are under 65 and able to work.

Now, what I think you want to say is why can't you pay into medicare\medicaid for medical coverage. First Medicare only covers people over age 65 (or disabled after a 18 month waiting period). Thus that leaves Medicaid (Welfare medical assistance). The states pay 1/2 of the Medicaid package with the Federal Government paying the other half. Thus who is covered and what is covered is up to the states to decide baased on how much each states what to spend. No state (to my knowledge) opts for the full amount of coverage offered by the Federal Government, for the states want to keep how much they pay down (Medicaid is a matching fund program, for each Dollar the State put in, the Feds put up a Dollar. If the States do not put up the needed Dollar, coverage is restricted to how much the state wants to spend).

Now their is the CAP program for people who are above the Federal Government Coverage limit for Medicaid. Now this program gives the states more money (up to 80% Funding) for low income people to get medical coverage. The problem with the CAP program is the reason most people are denied CAP. Their Income are so low their are eligible for Medicaid NOT CAPS (Remember Medicaid is 1/2 state funded unlike CAPS).

Thus the problem has been the refusal of the states to fully fund Medicaid (and its cousin Welfare). The States perfer to spend their money elsewhere than on the Poor.