Pieces of the health care financing pies
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
And since Turkey Day-related overeating or reckless wielding of a carving knife or straining your voice yelling for (or at) your favorite football team could result in a trip to the doctor, it's even more appropriate that we've found some pie charts dealing with health care reform.
All of us tax geeks and political wonks can be very thankful that instead of forcing us to squint at rows and rows of tiny numerals, the Tax Foundation (and its Tax Policy Blog) prepared colorful pie charts to demonstrate how the House and Senate propose to pay for their respective proposals.
The $848 billion health care reform legislation unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week is financed primarily through cuts to Medicare provider payments (which would save $330.6 billion, or 34 percent of the bill's 10-year cost) and a 40 percent excise tax on high-value "Cadillac" health plans (which would generate $149.1 billion, or 15 percent of the bill's cost), according to the Tax Foundation's review of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis.
Across Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's more-costly bill -- more than $1 trillion -- also includes cuts to Medicare spending, but most of the money in that overhaul plan would come from a surtax on wealthier taxpayers.
How will these pieces of revenue pie finally be sliced? Put on your budget apron and stay tuned.
Speaking of pies: Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which means family, friends, football and food, including pies. Here's hoping your holiday is a good one. And go ahead and have that extra piece of pumpkin pie. It is a holiday, after all.
Related posts:
- 2,074 pages + $849 billion = Senate health care bill
- Healthcare, Cadillacs & taxation options
- Bo-Tax back in play?
- Cost of not reforming health care
- High-deductible health care's high cost
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This health care bill is a real mess. It will take years to sort this out and who knows how much money it will cost in the end.
Posted by: Tax Marketing | Monday, June 14, 2010 at 10:02 PM
I agree that it will take a while to determine if this all was worth it. Personally, I'd like to see us address other ills that we have as a nation. Keep your fingers crossed.
Posted by: Chandler Arizona CPA | Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 09:38 PM
This new tax bill scares me, but the pie charts make me hungry. I think when its all said and done the spending on healthcare will be so much more than anticipated. Time will tell if it was worth it.
Posted by: Tax Lawyer | Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 08:45 PM
In conjunction with the impending Thanksgiving holiday, specifically the dessert portion of the day, a blog item containing pie charts seemed fitting.
Posted by: ihealth 360 | Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 11:51 PM