I just got a 65% tax credit on health insurance.

[Dr.Phool]

I knew I had it coming, but I got a package in the mail yesterday to apply for it. There is a federal law, that if your company shut down, you lost your health care benefits, are collecting a PBGC pension and are over 55 years old, you qualify for a 65% tax credit for health insurance.

When I was 19 years old, and finished 2 years in the Navy, I was hired by the River Terminal Railway Company, a division of Republic Steel, which was later taken over by LTV (also known as Liquidate, Terminate, and Vacate, or Lyin' Texas Varmints). When they shut down in 2002, I was forced to retire at age 49. Because of federal laws governing railroads, the company had to establish a trust fund to cover our health insurance for a while. We were lucky. The Steelworkers were cut off immediately. The trust fund ran dry last year, and we switched to my wife's coverage where she works. It costs us around $700 per month.

I turned 55 last month, and I knew about the tax provision, and was going to check on it, but I got this package in the mail yesterday. The way it works, is, if you have to go out and buy a new, qualified health insurance plan, or already have one, you send the insurance company 35% of the premium each month and the government will send the other 65% to them. In my case, where my wife pays through her employers plan, we get a 65% tax credit at the end of the year.

It's a legislative nightmare, but I'm lucky to have it. A friend of mine that I worked with, who is a couple of years older bought a policy when we were terminated, but it wasn't a "qualified plan" and he took the credit, and wound up having to pay the IRS a bundle in taxes, and penalties. He joined a qualified plan, and when he turned 62 they increased his premiums over 65%, so the credit was pretty much meaningless.

We don't need tax credits, or employer financed health insurance. What we need is Government sponsored, single-payer health insurance. Get the insurance companies out of the picture completely.

I'm a lot luckier than most people, to qualify for such a program, but I shouldn't be. Everyone deserves better.

[havocmom]

1. seems like all the 'help' we get recently goes from taxpayer (us) to corporations

with us getting less and less coverage with more and more hassles. I know the system is arranged to just wear us down to where we figure it isn't worth the effort and wander off to die. That is what they want.

[Dr.Phool]

2. You got that right.

Last July, when our coverage was terminated, I thought about going without insurance for myself, and just letting my wife have her coverage through work. We decided against it, and paid the premiums. 3 weeks later I was hospitalized for 4 days, and ran up over $50,000 in bills. It would have bankrupted us.