Originally Posted By: wfaulk
Originally Posted By: TigerJimmy
You would agree, then, that the 40% tax is ridiculous … ?

No. $27,500 is more than about 30% of the households in the US earn.

And the 40% tax is on the amount over that limit.

And people in dangerous occupations where there's a reason for high premiums (cops, firemen, etc.) are exempted.


Who decides whether this is excessive? A tyranny of democratic majority? Our system isn't supposed to work like that. It's supposed to protect minorities against the majority. Isn't how much to pay for your health insurance an individual choice? It is my money, after all. OK, not really, not any more, but it's supposed to be!

I'm back working in a field that pays fairly well, and I certainly have an option to opt for one of these "Cadillac" plans (look at the emotional rhetoric used!), but it's not given to me. I have 3 options or something, and the company pays a certain amount. I pick which of the 3 I want, and pay the difference above the company subsidized portion from my paycheck. It's been this way everywhere I've worked.

You know what will happen, of course. The "rich" people will have their compensation restructured to have a $27,500 health insurance allowance, exactly, and the balance will be given in other compensation to avoid the tax. Regardless of whether it's "fair", it won't work. It won't raise any money, because high-income employees will have their comp restructured. Happens all the time. If that doesn't work, they'll just opt for health insurance that costs $27,500 and relinquish the extra benefits, taking the balance in cash compensation. So we'll have another government liability that is going to result in a big deficit because how they intend to pay for it is naive, dishonest and stupid.

We saw a similar thing happen with the fuel economy mandates. Auto makers were required to get their average fuel economy up, and luxury cars were dragging down the average. Knowing that the American consumer was still going to demand a large vehicle, the manufacturers exploited a loophole that excluded trucks from the mandate, and the big luxury vehicles were all suddenly SUVs. The regulation *caused* the SUV craze because it changed the economics rather than what people actually wanted (which was big vehicles). These unintended consequences happen all the time, and the end result is that government grows, the regulation accomplishes little, except to make it more difficult to produce goods because of the cost of compliance.