I have had the TV tuned to MSNBC while doing some computer work this afternoon, so I wasn't paying close attention, but I caught Mitch McConnell blathering about health care reform. My ears pricked up when I heard him say that the playing field isn't level. Imagine that!
He started by saying that the reason there are so many uninsured in the United States is because individuals cannot claim as tax deductions the health insurance premiums they might pay for insurance. The uneven playing field, according to McConnell, is because businesses can claim premiums they pay for their employees as tax deductions. His solution to the problem of millions of uninsured in the United States? The same old republican meme: tax breaks for individuals! Let them claim health insurance premiums as tax deductions!
One of the problems with his solution is that individuals can already claim health insurance premiums as a tax deduction on tax returns. Now, maybe he is talking about allowing people to claim those premiums without having to file a 1040 schedule A (whereby as part of your total health care expenditures for the year, you may claim health insurance premiums. As long as you claim only that portion of your total health care expenditures over 7% of your adjusted gross income, you are ok.) That would help a little, but somehow I just don't think he gets it.
The reason there are so many uninsured in this country is because there are too many people who do not make enough to pay for insurance premiums in the first place. What good is a tax break if it's going to cost you one quarter or more of your income just for health insurance premiums? If you have to pay for rent, and food, and transportation, what does that leave for health insurance premiums? What good is a tax break if you aren't paying that much in taxes to start with? What good is a tax break if you have no income? And don't tell me, Senator McConnell, that these people are not hard workers who don't deserve help. That's BS, and you know it.
It wouldn't be quite so bad if I sensed that Senator McConnell knew what he was talking about, but he seems to be making this suggestion just to make it look like the republicans have something substantive to add to the solution. In reality, he just doesn't have a clue what lower and middle class Americans are going through these days and his suggestion is just a way to divert attention from what truly needs to be done. The tired old republican belief in tax cuts discounts the millions of people for whom tax cuts simply make no difference. At the very least, we need a strong public option, which we can all hope will lead to single payer health care.
I am sure Senator McConnell would be the first to stand by the words of the Declaration of Independence, that we are all endowed with certain unalienable rights, among them, "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." What part of those right does he think doesn't require the ability to lead a healthy life?