Telly
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2003
- Messages
- 2,395
Saw two blurbs about this in today's paper. Never heard a WORD about it before:
"For the first time, a benficiary's income would be taken into account in assessing premiums, charging wealthier people more for doctor services."
"Under the bill, people with incomes more than $80,000 a year would, for the first time, have to pay higher premiums for the part of Medicare that covers doctor's services."
So far, I have been unable to find any detail, such as:
A) What is the definition of "income"?
B) Is the $80,000 inflation-indexed, or is it another fixed amount, like the 32k Social Security taxable rule that everyone will inflate into as the years go by?
I suspect that "income" will be all-encompassing: Wages, interest, dividends, gains, pension, social security taxable, amounts taken out of a 401k/IRA, etc. etc.
It gripes me that government is moving more and more to reinforce the wrong behavioral characteristics in people. Work somewhere for a long time and get a pension, we'll tax you higher. Be financially responsible and limit current consumption to save for your own retirement, we'll tax you higher. Make higher wages and pay more into S.S., we'll tax you higher on S.S payout.
But, live irresponsibly, spend whatever you make, live for today, engage in bad habits, and we will cover you. We'll just pull it from those other "wealthy" people. You know, those "fat cats", the ones I just described in the paragraph above!
"Tax the 'rich' feed the poor, till there are no, rich no more..."
Alright, rant mode off.
Anyone heard of this new twist to the bill? I wonder if this is just the first means-test of many to come in the future.
"For the first time, a benficiary's income would be taken into account in assessing premiums, charging wealthier people more for doctor services."
"Under the bill, people with incomes more than $80,000 a year would, for the first time, have to pay higher premiums for the part of Medicare that covers doctor's services."
So far, I have been unable to find any detail, such as:
A) What is the definition of "income"?
B) Is the $80,000 inflation-indexed, or is it another fixed amount, like the 32k Social Security taxable rule that everyone will inflate into as the years go by?
I suspect that "income" will be all-encompassing: Wages, interest, dividends, gains, pension, social security taxable, amounts taken out of a 401k/IRA, etc. etc.
It gripes me that government is moving more and more to reinforce the wrong behavioral characteristics in people. Work somewhere for a long time and get a pension, we'll tax you higher. Be financially responsible and limit current consumption to save for your own retirement, we'll tax you higher. Make higher wages and pay more into S.S., we'll tax you higher on S.S payout.
But, live irresponsibly, spend whatever you make, live for today, engage in bad habits, and we will cover you. We'll just pull it from those other "wealthy" people. You know, those "fat cats", the ones I just described in the paragraph above!
"Tax the 'rich' feed the poor, till there are no, rich no more..."
Alright, rant mode off.
Anyone heard of this new twist to the bill? I wonder if this is just the first means-test of many to come in the future.