Should the Rich Pay to Fix Health Care?

Taxing the rich sounds like a great idea, until you think about it.

The rich will either allow the reduction in their net income or simply raise their prices to cover the tax increase then buy the new yacht anyway. Which would you do? Raising taxes on the rich will simply add cost to their goods and services. In the end the consumer will pay for any tax imposed on anyone.

The best thing we can do is to insist that citizens of other nations pay for their own health care and education or go home so their governments can do it. If they’re here legally or not, we can’t afford to take care of the world.

For the record, I paid taxes on $53,000 last year. This proposed tax won’t directly affect me. It will affect all of us indirectly through higher prices.

Lawsuits must be limited.
Every time a new med or procedure is introduced, there are lawyers on tv drooling.
"If you took ----, call the law office of ----."
If you notice, it's the same lawyers on tv time and again. They are ambulance chasers.

Also, hospitals and insurance companies should get rid of the top-heavy people with all the perks, etc.
There should be more wellness centers for everybody. Prevention is the key.
(Diabetes and Hypertention are taking a big toll on the health of the poorest.)

Should the rich pay for the poor?
Well, yes. The above mentioned salaries sound about right. Make sure that the rich (and the super rich) don't try to hide it first. I don't say to 'soak' them, but a fair amount shouldn't be so painful. It's not like it's going to take food out of their babies' mouths.

It's moral, just, and good business. It will keep 'the worker bees' healthy. (I'm a 'worker bee'. So don't get offended.) If you can't do it for love, then do it from a practical point of view.

Instead of giving some fancy party for charity, cut out the party, and give it directly to health care.

It was the Limousine Liberals (Hollywood, Oprah, New York society) that funded Obama’s election campaign.

Let them pay the price.

The rich should pay, and so should everyone else according to their means.
I am currently paying for insurance plus 400 a month into an HSA, which by the way, really only benefits those making over 250,000 with the much propagandized "tax benefit." I would do better to pay 50 to 100 a month more and not have to put disposable income into the HSA.
And as for as limiting law suits. LOL they account for only something like one percent of medical costs.
My own MD who gave me a big rant about insurance companies, told me that his malpractice costs increase despite the fact that he has no claims against him!
And he could not get insurance for his disabled daughter.
Prissy CEOs and executives are making billions per year. He told me his insurance ceo made 78 million! Why is it so expensive. The pigs who are making obscene compensation are a big part of it.

I am sick of prissy MBAs being between me and my doctor and who btw often make more money than my doctor who studied most of his life and works 12 hour days.
Even going back to not for profit insurance and hospitals as existed before Nixon would be an improvement to the obascenely overpaied CEOs and executives who are robbing all of us.

In today's Press Conference Pres. Obama praised nurses; however, he only mentioned Registered Nurses. He forgot LPN's (LVN's). Licensed nurses practice in hospitals, nursing homes, home health, hospice, etc. and they do just about everything an RN does.
Licensed Nurses need to be mentioned as well. Obama should also praise CNA's, and ALL health care workers.

I'm sure it was an oversight.
I hope our 'new' healthcare policy will not have too many oversights.

The poor have paid for years when there has been NO healthcare. Returning the tax rate on the rich to what it was under Clinton, which was still low, won't kill them. They've raped the American taxpayer with Bush's tax cuts for them, which they DIDN'T use to create jobs, but instead opened tax-dodging accounts in Switzerland. Despite the GOP's bleeding heart for the rich, paying what they did under Clinton WON'T kill them. They've gotten away with murder. It's time to fix that.

First of all, I acknowledge that it must be difficult for the press to keep up with the pace of new media nowadays. But -- ABC News? With all due respect, it's not "bare" the burden, but "bear."

JL - well said and amen.

Nobody can collect the money to pay for health care as cheaply as the government can through a national sales tax.

New reform is proposing to help us by having government force individuals and businesses to purchase questionable insurance to pay for expensive services in a system that has already failed many of us.

Nobody can deliver high quality care and medications, free to everyone who asks, without requiring insurance or co pays just free period, as cost effectively as government owned and operated hospitals serving as the public portion of a new public/private reform system could.

Private pay private care could be kept by everyone who likes what they have.

Real reform that would serve individuals with totally free care and would relieve businesses of all health care obligations financial, record keeping, everything eliminated, it would be healthy for everyone and the greatest national economic stimulus ever.

A new dual public/private system that would deliver all government funded programs free through government owned and operated hospitals and clinics would save the government hundreds of billions annually from the current costs and government savings would be even larger when compared to projected costs for new proposed reforms.

Ask the President and legislators why this is not on the table?

No Thay Should Donate Every Year To Help People. In Your Home Land, Because We As People At Home Need To Stick Together. This Is All Way Have

Why should the rick pay? Do you really think it's right to have them pay for being successful???

You say 'yes they should' simply because it does not affect you. It doesn't affect me either but I don't believe that because someone has been given the wealth and opportunity that they should be the crutch for everyone else who are less ambitious or lazy.

I believe that if the rich have to pay, they should get VIP medical treatment that others have little or no access to. Why not?! They're paying right???

Our country has spent too much time, money and energy supporting social programs that support laziness. For example...poor individuals who reproduce simply to get money from the government. OH I know the human rights activists will be on my case but to be honest, we promote laziness in this country and it's a disgrace. I think people who are on unemployment or welfare should be required to give back to their communities by cleaning up trash on highways, painting bridges, etc...doing something to earn that money. What TRUE incentive to they have to get off their bum and work???

$350k is not super rich so imposing a higher tax that what is currently in place is ridiculous. Most everyone I know has made something of themselves and my biggest question is why can't others do what I have done? I did not come from money as I was raised on an enlisted military salary. I chose to find ways to fund my own college and struggled for years after graduation to pay off those loans. Now that I have a wife making comparable money and we do well together we must support those who chose not to do as well as us? Yes, chose is the correct word. Everyone can make it if they apply themselves.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Does nobody remember the 1970's?

When taxes on the wealthy are high, they actually pay LESS as a percentage than everyone else. In 1981, the top 1% paid 17.6% of all income taxes. Reagan cut the top rate dramatically in 1981 and again in 1986. What happened? The percentage paid by the top 1% INCREASED to 28% of all income taxes, revenue to the treasury TRIPLED, and more people have been lifted out of poverty in THIS COUNTRY and around the world in the years following (tax rates have remained at or near their Reagan levels ever since) than ever before in human history (source: Joint Economic Council).

How on earth can this happen? To someone who's not blinded by the socialist "dream" of economic "equality" (see Cuba), the answer is obvious. The top 1% constitute 80% of all global investments. Cut their taxes and investments soar, along with corporate profitability and the 401K jobs that come with it. As new wealth is created, new taxes are paid.

Raise their taxes, and the exact opposite happens: their investments decline, along with corporate profitability and the 401K jobs that come with it. Unemployment goes up, and liberals can't figure out what the hell happened, so they tax and spend to try and fill the void left by a declining economy with endless stimulus measures that do nothing. That is the economic history of the 1960's and 70's in a nutshell.

This is what liberals and socialists don't understand. They prefer to obsess over divvying up the wealth pie instead of making it bigger!

Socialists always have good intentions, but their arguments choose to ignore economic reality for the promise of "social justice". They need to remember that social justice is only possible, and can only be paid for, if the economy grows...And the wheel goes round and round...

My mom went to school for 11 years to become a doctor. I'm sick of listening to the "the middle class are the true hard working people in this country" talk. For the past 10+ years, she has worked her butt off, often working 60+ hours a week for her paycheck.
She got all the way through school with hard work and loans, not through rich mommy or daddy. Her parents were lower middle class at best at the time.
My dad, to get his LVN then RN degree, road a bicycle to school for a year with one handlebar and eating Ramon noodles for years.
After all that hard work, now they're being asked to pay for everyone else.
Explain to me again why they are the evil blood-suckers keeping the little man down.