Monday, October 5, 2009

New Taxes in Baucus Health Bill

Wondering where the money is going to come from to pay for government health care? Some of it is going to come from taxing medical devices like these:

* Pacemakers
* Hip joint replacements
* Gastrointestinal tubes
* Artificial hearts
* Hearing aids
* Porcelain teeth
* Heart defibrillators
* Prosthetic heart valve rotators
* Powered wheelchairs
* Ventilators

And that's because they scaled back some of the taxes. Under pressure, the Senate recently exempted medical items that cost under $100 -- such as tampons and condoms.

And where do taxes come to roost? To the manufacturers or retailers? No, they're passed directly on to consumers.

"Looking at the numbers, the bill calls for around to $350 billion in new taxes, so this $4 billion a year is just a small fraction of taxes raised," said Dr. Jennifer Mellor, the director of the Schroeder Center for Healthcare Policy at the College of William and Mary.

Still, it's once again an example of government mandated expenditures on the part of private citizens to pay for this monstrosity. I say demonstrate to me the true savings and then talk about spending the saved money.

You can find the original article here.

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