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Overnight Open Thread

312
Walter L. Newton9/21/2009 6:36:16 am PDT

re: #308 Desert Dog

The poor will still have Medicaid. But for those earning more, the required premiums will be worse than any tax increase. For example, CBO estimates that when the program is fully implemented — by 2016 — an individual earning $32,400 a year would have to pay $4,100 in premiums before getting any subsidy. With deductibles and co-payments, he’d have to shell out $5,600 a year, or 17.3 percent of his income. A family of four, making $80,000 a year, would have to pay about $10,500 in premiums alone — with deductibles and co-payments, up to $15,000 or just under 20 percent of income.

And in the last 24 hours, I have not heard ONE single explanation as to how this is NOT a anything but a tax.

Can anyone give me the “official line?”