McCain's Hidden Tax Increase on the Middle Class

[John] McCain wants to do away with the tax exemption on employer-provided insurance. Instead, he would give a $2,500 annual tax credit to individuals, and $5,000 to families, to purchase their own coverage.

That is a whopping tax increase if you are fortunate to have employer-sponsored health insurance. Virtually every insurance plan costs over $208 a month for individuals and $416 for families. A reasonably decent individual plan will cost nearly a grand a month for a single woman in her fifties and a bunch more if she is the breadwinner for a family (I know this because a friend was buying her own insurance).

If that is through your employer, you will then be taxed on having income of an additional $12,000 a year or maybe even $18,000 a year without a extra cent in her pocket to pay the taxes. Between Federal and state taxes, depending on your income, you could pay as much as $7,000 in additional taxes under the McCain plan if you have employer health insurance.

But if you don't or if your employer says "hey, you're getting a tax credit, go buy your own," then figure on that costing you a hell of a lot more than his tax credit.

Besides that, one of the things about being in a large employer plan is that the cost of any one person is spread out. If you have to buy it on your own and if you have had any previous issues, your premiums will be a hell of a lot higher than McCain's proposed tax credit.

Worse, under HIPAA, if you go to work for a company, their health insurance has to cover you if you are coming from a job with health insurance. If your employer were to stop offering health insurance under the McCain plan, you would have to go buy your own and you wil not be covered for pre-existing conditions.

McCain does not give a fuck about the middle class; his health insurance proposal is clear proof of that.