One of the problems with this entire health care reform debate is that most of us have no idea what the details are of the various plans that the various Senate and House committees are debating. Nor will we have any idea what the Congress passes, if at all, until a long time after the bill becomes a law. That's one reason why health care reform advocates have been talking about the "public option." Their logic is that at least push for a critical component in the plan, if you can't know all the details of the specific plans the Senators and House members are discussing behind the scenes. Still, this detail, below, is an example of even the "good" plan - the House bill that the health care reform groups support - isn't exactly Sweden.
Under the House bill, a couple with joint income of $75,000, before taxes, would not receive a subsidy. And if they are self-employed, and receive no help from an employer, the premiums that they would be expected to pay could easily run as high as $13,000 a year. After taxes, if they live in a high-tax state, they might take home $65,000 a year—or less. This means that health care premiums would eat 20 percent of their income—or more.A joint income of $75,000. That means each of you makes $37,500 a year. That's it. And you're cut off from federal assistance with your premium payments. Now, if the premium payments aren't exorbitant, maybe this is okay (but under the analysis above, that's a hell of a lot of money for someone to pay). But I, like you, have no idea if these plans will help me when I'm in my 50s and Blue Cross is charging me well over $1,000 a month for my single person plan (we also have no idea if they'll actually give us real prescription drug coverage, etc.) It's very difficult to support a plan when you have no idea what the plan is, nor what its impact is actually going to be on YOUR coverage.
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