Impact of Health Care Proposals

PRESIDENT GREATLY REDUCED HIS HEALTH PROPOSALS FOR LOWER-INCOME FAMILIES WHILE EXPANDING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR THE MORE AFFLUENT By Jason Furman

President Bush’s budget includes $156 billion in tax cuts over the next ten years (2007-16) to promote Health Savings Accounts and associated high-deductible insurance policies, with the large majority of this money going to more affluent households. This is slightly larger than the $133 billion in tax cuts for health care that the President proposed in last year’s budget.[1] But this modest increase masks a more fundamental change in the President’s priorities. [...]

HT to the Chicago Tribune editorial, Bush's Rx for insurance: Buy your own, I went to the CBPP site to get more details. Although this is only one perspective, it is enlightening. Note that the appearance of the graph is going to be influenced greatly by the choice of the cut-point between low-income and high-income families. Even allowing for that, this graph betrays the true intent of the proposal: It has nothing to do with health care. Nothing. Calling this nonsense a "health care proposal" is a damn lie. It is a tax break and a welfare program for rich people. A family that can afford to put $10,500 into an HSA gets a 15.3% tax credit. How many people can afford to do that?