Post by Prometheus on Feb 23, 2021 4:28:26 GMT
I went out with a couple friends last night to have a couple beers. We were having a good time laughing and joking when all of a sudden, Charles walked in. Charles is an older guy - late 60's, early 70's - American businessman, and quite possibly further to the right (politically) than Trump. We all roll our eyes to each other because we know that he's just going to start talking some stupid shit. The fun literally got sucked right out of the room.
He walks over, sits down with us, orders a beer and starts in on how renewed talks about UHC in America is going to turn it into a socialist country. He blathered on for a couple minutes and then I asked him if he pays insurance premiums. He talked about how he had a pretty good plan and only paid about $400 a month in premiums.
I said, "So, about $4,800 a year? Good. Do you have a deductible?"
He said that his deductible was $2,000 dollars and a little further conversation showed that he usually ended up paying that out to hospitals every year between him and his wife.
"And you have co-pays?"
"Of course."
"So... $4,800 in premiums plus deductible plus co-pays, probably works out to about $7,000 per year, right?"
He nodded, understanding where I was going, and shot back, "But my taxes will go up!"
"OK. Let's keep the math simple. You make $100k a year and your taxes are 28%. That's 72k take home... minus the deductible, premiums, and co-pays, you're left with 65k."
"Yes, but..." he interjected but I asked him to let me finish.
"If your tax rate goes up to 30% you'll have 70k take home, still get the same medical care, and without the deductibles, premiums, and co-pays, you actually end up with a $5,000 net gain in your pocket. I'm pretty sure you can pump that $5,000 into the economy to strengthen it some other way."
He started turning red, so I continued, "Even if your rate went up to 35% you'd end up with 65k take home which means that it's still a break-even proposition for you."
Now, he was so red we could have hung him on a flagpole as a Chinese flag. "SOCIALISM!" he blurted.
"When everyone puts in and anyone can take out what they need, that's usually called a 'Public Good' such as roads... police and fire departments... the military...."
I would have finished, but he slammed his beer down on the bar and stormed out without paying. I offered to pay for the beer, but the landlord, still laughing, said, "Don't worry about it" and poured me a double bourbon. "On the house. Cheers!"
Now if only my computer would pour me a double bourbon for ever social media post....
![[cheers]](http://storage.proboards.com/7182076/images/engyBVslEdpmpmdnBwZQ.gif)
