Daniel A. Bosh – 5/15/08

This page was last updated on May 24, 2008.

Put America on Medicare; Daniel A. Bosh; Beaver County Times; May 15, 2008.

If you’ve read Bosh letters over the years, you recognize him as a died-in-the-wool socialist. In the 2004 presidential campaign, Mr. Bosh was a Democrat national delegate committed to Dennis Kucinich. I could be mistaken, but I believe Mr. Bosh is a fulltime employee of the Steelworkers Pension Trust. There’s nothing wrong with that except it means Mr. Bosh isn’t an impartial observer when it comes to labor union issues, and a socialized healthcare system is a labor union management issue.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The writer of the May 7 letter ‘Health care doesn’t need fixed’ is correct that we have a high quality health-care system. We do have great hospitals and great health-care professionals.

“The problem, though, is not health-care providers. It is our inefficient and obsolete system of health-care financing, an employment-based system that channels money through the health-insurance industry.”

[RWC] Note Mr. Bosh fails to acknowledge it was government policy during World War II that got employer-based healthcare insurance going in the first place. For more on this issue and healthcare in general, please read my Healthcare paper.

“This system no longer works. Just the fact that people today change jobs more often than they did in the past means that tying health-care coverage to employment puts more people at risk of losing coverage when they lose a job.

“Involving the health-insurance industry wastes around one third of the money we spend on health care.

“This system denies access to many millions, resulting in lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates than in other industrial countries and brings about economic ruin for so many honest, hard-working Americans.”

[RWC] Mr. Bosh is simply reciting talking points.

“We need to put America on Medicare, the already existing government health-care system that covers Americans over 65 and those with certain disabilities. H.R. 676, a bill to cover all Americans under Medicare for all medically necessary procedures, including dental and vision, and provide a real prescription drug benefit while eliminating out-of- pocket expenses, has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives and currently has more than 80 cosponsors.”

[RWC] I encourage you to read H.R. 676. Among other provisions, the bill prohibits for-profit healthcare providers from participating and insurers aren’t allowed to sell policies covering procedures supposedly covered by the socialized system. FYI, Quebec, Canada, tried the latter prohibition and even the Canada Supreme Court knocked it down, saying “Access to a waiting list is not access to healthcare.”

“It is not free. It would require most Americans to pay a tax of 4.75 percent of income matched by their employers. Those in the top 5 percent will be required to pay an additional 5 percent of earnings. For most workers, the tax is significantly less than the $14,000 per year cost of decent family coverage.”

[RWC] I don’t know where Mr. Bosh got his info, but H.R. 676 doesn’t mention a 9.5% (4.75% x 2) tax rate. It does mention “increasing personal income taxes on the top 5% income earners; (3) … instituting a progressive excise tax on payroll and self-employment income; and (4) … instituting a small tax on stock and bond transactions.” “Progressive excise tax on payroll …” means a payroll tax whose rate increases with your income.

The employer-matched tax is a myth. The full 12.4% of Socialist Security taxes and 2.9% of Medicare taxes come out of your pocket.

In any case, why should some employees subsidize the healthcare insurance of others?

“Free health care is not the answer, but an efficiently financed system that covers everyone is.”

[RWC] Messrs. Bosh and Horter must get together since both seem focused on their idea of “efficiency.” Of course, it may be that both simply get their talking points from the same source. Keep in mind it’s the same “efficient” government that’s running Socialist Security and Medicare into insolvency that Messrs. Bosh and Horter want to run healthcare for all.

Notice freedom of choice is never an issue considered. Let me correct that. H.R. 676 specifically says, “Patients shall have free choice of participating physicians and other clinicians, hospitals, and inpatient care facilities.” That’s very generous given that patients don’t have the freedom not to participate in the system in the first place.