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Just
Adopt Just Health Care |
Here's
How
To Pay For It
The Labor Party's Plan
For Financing Just Health Care
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Just Health Care will eliminate many administrative jobs.
Just Transition will ease the way for these workers. Photo
©2000, H.L. Delgado, Impact Visuals |
How much would it cost to insure the nation’s 45 million
uninsured; eliminate all deductibles and co-pays; and insure
everyone for nursing home and other long-term care, mental
health and occupational health services, dental and vision
care?
Under our current health care system — the one Al Gore
and George Bush want to preserve — it would cost a fortune.
But under the Labor Party’s Just Health Care plan, we can do
all that without paying a cent more as a nation for health
care. The key is eliminating the wasteful bureaucracy and
profit-taking of insurance companies — and the institution
of global budgeting.
The Labor Party, in collaboration with leading economists
and health care analysts, has released a plan detailing just
how we would pay for Just Health Care. Under the plan, the
U.S. would continue to spend the same amount on health care as
now: $1.213 trillion. The budget is outlined below. (For the
full plan, please see LP
Briefing Paper: Financing Just Health Care).
Government: $533.3 billion
Federal, state, and local governments would contribute the
same amount they currently pay for Medicare and other federal
and state programs.
Employers: $155.1 billion
We would impose a modest tax of 3.303 percent on employers’
payroll. The tax would be substantially less than what most
employers now pay for health insurance.
Income Taxes on the
Wealthy: $161.9 billion
Between 1982 and 1995 alone, the wealthiest one percent of
Americans saw their household net income rise about 17 percent
while the bottom 40 percent saw a drop of nearly 80 percent.
The Labor Party proposes to close that gap a bit with an extra
5 percent income tax on taxpayers with average incomes of
$183,200. We would also impose a 10 percent income tax on the
richest one percent of Americans.
Tax on stock and bond
transactions: $128.4 billion
We would impose a tax on all stock transactions equal to
one half of one percent of the stock’s purchase price. The
tax would be minimal for those who hold onto the stocks, but
expensive for speculators.
Budget Surplus: $100 billion
Democrats and Republicans want to spend the nation’s
massive federal budget surplus on tax cuts and measures
benefiting the wealthy. We propose to spend a small portion of
the surplus on something worthwhile: health care for all.
Corporate Tax Shelter
Loophole: $60 billion
For every dollar of profit reported to shareholders by
corporations back in 1990, 91 cents was taxable by the IRS. By
1997, that number had fallen to 70 cents. We propose to close
some of the loopholes that made this rip-off possible and
apply the money to health care.
Individuals: $44.6 billion
Under Just Health Care, individuals would no longer have to
pay health insurance premiums, co-payments, Medicare Part B or
any out-of-pocket costs for dental, vision, or prescription
drugs. As a result, total household expenditures on health
care would drop from $327 billion to $45 billion.
Other Revenues: $33.2 billion
Donations from individuals and foundations would continue
to make up a small part of the national health care budget.
Total Budget: $1.213 trillion
Just Transition
We estimate that some 1.25 million workers will lose their
jobs as a result of the transition to Just Health Care. These
workers, who staff insurance companies and provide other
administrative services under our current health care system,
should not have to shoulder the burden of the nation’s
necessary transition to a sane health care system.
The Just Health Care financing plan creates a $171.5
billion fund to help these workers make the transition to
other work or retirement. The fund would come from the
windfall we will realize as employers move toward paying
significantly less for health insurance.
Just Transition would provide every worker who loses his or
her job because of the transition to Just Health Care with
full take-home pay and benefits for up to four years or a wage
subsidy for any worker who takes a job paying less than the
old job, and full tuition for up to four years if the worker
chooses to attend school.
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