Health Care #1

I honestly was not aware that health care was such an issue until taking this government class. After learning and researching about our country’s health care, I was amazed to see how important health care really is and the outstanding number of people uninsured today. The first thing I researched and informed myself of was the Health Care Bill of 2010.

The number one issue of this bill that comes to my mind with health care is the cost. How will we determine who will pay for this? It is expected that within the first 10 years the cost will be over $940 billion. That’s a lot of money! Washington says the money will be provided by new taxes, fees on industries involved in health care, and cuts in projected spending growth for existing government health efforts, primarily Medicare.

First off, Washington says that there will be higher Medicare tax on the rich people. Starting in January of 2013, the rich should be expecting much higher taxes. Is this fair? Should the rich be paying for the jobless? Secondly, there will be new tax on expensive health insurance. I don’t quite understand what is taxed but it is said that it will be in effect in 2018 and bring in over $32 billion dollars in the first two years. And also, there will be fees on health care industries. Obama believes that this is only fair due to the fact these companies will be getting a lot of new customers. Another tax that interested me was the tanning tax. Washington wants to establish a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning. I wonder what caused this idea.

So with all of this being said, is the place where the money is coming from fair? Is everyone being affected by this? Since, I don’t know much about health care and how it is affecting our country I cannot pose my opinion on how fair Washington is being. After more research with next blog post, I think I will be able to develop an opinion on today health care issue.