by Does anybody believe the Democrats’ numbers saying their health plan, such as it is, will be a budgetary gain? The idea is ludicrous, as is the notion that quality of service will improve. Working Americans from the middle class will pay more and get less.
William Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, says:
The success of the bill depends on Congress having the discipline to enact tax increases and accept expert recommendations that it has not shown in the past.
For example, the bill would not impose the tax on generous insurance policies until 2018 and then it would make the tax more restrictive over time; however, Congress has continually shied away from its commitments to be more stringent over time.
If Congress isn’t disciplined, the benefits of the bill will evaporate into higher medical costs and larger deficits.
That’s pretty much a best-case scenario and fails to address the practical concerns of middle-class Americans whose taxes, whether direct or indirect, will inevitably rise to cover the costs of the entitlement that’s about to be granted to the poor.
