Seeing the Round Corners

August 27, 2018

JARED POLIS – HIS MEDICARE FOR ALL

   Today’s column will address gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis’ position on health care for Coloradans. Polis proudly extols that “health care is a human right,” but fails to address a plan to pay for such a massive plan.

As one of Congress’ ten wealthiest members of Congress, Polis is sponsoring a bill that would repeal the Trump tax cuts, “thereby effectively raising taxes on most Americans and businesses.” In a recent interview, Polis “confirmed that for at least five years he paid no income taxes at all from 2001 to 2005.” As rebuttal, Polis claimed “When you don’t make money, you can’t pay taxes.”

Ideas are always widely abundant when a candidate is running, but sadly, warm and fuzzy, grand and glorious plans without a solid plan for implementation are no better than a pile of you know what. Without a way to pay for such a huge entitlement, “medicare for all” is just like those other welfare programs, but those programs have a source of funding – those paying into Social Security and those who have Medicare withheld from their monthly Social Security.

Polis likes to be classified as a progressive politician, but what readers should remember is, it is a tactic of socialist countries to bestow certain rights on their citizens as a way of appeasing the masses.

Let’s revisit the 2016 Amendment 69 proposal which was publicly opposed by Polis. Amendment 69/ColoradoCare had as it mantra, “Medicare for all” and “Health care is a human right.” Soundly defeated by wise Coloradans (80 percent to 20 percent) Amendment 69 would have limited benefits (rationing), increased co-pays and deductibles (paid by consumers) and reduced payments to doctors and hospitals (resulting in fewer doctors and hospitals), according to analysis by Mark Hillman, former State Senator and former Treasurer of Colorado.

How many times have the hard-working citizens of America heard those arrogant and elitist members of Congress rail about how nothing can be done about the growing national debt without doing something about the welfare programs of Social Security and Medicare? Those fine members of Congress seem to have their own special dictionary for the definition of welfare.

Most readers of this column have been paying Social Security in for their lifetime. In 1991, employees were introduced to a revised withholding payroll deduction which separated out from the previously itemized deduction Social Security.” Medicare became a separate itemization when the assessment rate for Medicare increased to $125,000.00, nearly twice the $53.400.00 subject to Social Security.

The point of the previous paragraphs is to remind those wealthy members of Congress that paying Social Security taxes then and now paying for Medicare by deductions from our monthly Social Security check means America’s ordinary citizens are not welfare deadbeats! Double taxation falls on deaf ears!!!!

Back to Jared Polis’ grand ideas, but keep in mind, an entitlement such as “Health care for all” must be paid for.

•  Medicare for all legislation in Congress – idea is now gaining momentum across the political spectrum. Such a plan was tried in Massachusetts in Mitt Romney’s administration and it did not work. Vermont and Bernie Sanders could not get such a program off the ground in that state.  Polis’ claims among other bizarre things that “By taking the burden of administering employee health care off the shoulders of employers, business can focus more on their core products and services. Providers benefit due to the favorable reimbursement rates and because there is no profit motive for this plan, administrative costs go down and efficiencies in care are increased. Readers should ask Polis to provide proof. Vermont went through all the hoops, ready to put the plan in play but realized they could not get it to work.
• Pioneering a Western Single-Payer System – Polis’ idea to think outside the box and develop partnerships with other western states to pioneer a groundbreaking regional multi-state consortium to offer a common-payer system in the West to reduce prices, expand coverage and improve the quality of care had a similar approach during the Amendment 69/Colorado Care hype. Polis refers to such a system that would provide “no citizen is treated unequally in getting insurance coverage or is denied coverage due to the complexity of differing standards. By removing moral hazards and perverse incentives to deny coverage we can put people over politics and be a regional model for the rest of the nation.
• Providing Coloradans More Health Care Options –  Polis supports more public and non-profit options on the exchange, including resurrecting a customer-owned co-op, exploring the possibility of opening the state employee benefit plan, Medicaid as an option on Connect for Health Colorado, and bring non-profit and government risk pooling to more Coloradans. Polis idea of resurrecting the customer-owned co-op that was unsuccessful is one to really pen Polis down. Again, Polis offers no way of funding such a plan.
• Paid Family and Medical Leave – This idea is one so incredibly popular in socialist countries. Polis claims he will make sure that every Coloradan has paid family and medical leave when he is Governor. Such a program would be horrendously expensive. No doubt such a plan would be funded by taxes – stay tuned for “Shall taxes be increased to fund paid family and medical leave” A good question to ask of Polis is does he practice what he advocates?

   Next week, Polis Bolstering Colorado’s Health Infrastructure.

The mission of Seeing the Round Corners is to evoke a thought process and interest in becoming better informed and to be skeptical of the headline-grabbing purveyors of information.

The reader's comments or questions are always welcome. E-mail me at doris@dorisbeaver.com.