Santosh Helekar wrote:
>5. The government is imposing new taxes and limits on insurance companies and
> health care device manufacturers, which might force them to raise the prices
> for
> their products, and reduce their ability to compete in a global free market.
> To those
> who believe in capitalist free market economy and in maintaining America's
> competitive edge this violates one of their most important ideological
> principles.
Santosh,
Rest assured that the US will have to raise taxes soon to pay for
the new health package.
I am talking about both Federal and State taxes. Today, fully half the
states are on the verge
of bankruptcy and the new health bill will make them slide faster into that
position,
unless they raise taxes.
.
Also rest assured that US health insurance companies will soon be going broke
and will
be receiving financial aid from the US govt. The aid package to US financial
companies
that went broke last year is unfortunately going to be repeated with the
insurance and
health industries.
I just love the rational behind the peculiar type of capitalism the US is
practising today
i.e. profits of public companies are to be shared among shareholders and losses
are to
be absorbed by the tax payers. And one more thing, a company can be deemed "too
large to fail' and then it must be kept alive because that is the proper thing
to do.
While the US residents ponder how much more taxes they will have to pay for the
new
medical system in the country, the rest of the world has a weightier problem
i.e. Should
US states be allowed to go bankrupt? When you lend money to a company, you know
the risks involved and you get a premium corresponding to the risk you take.
On the other hand, people lending money to US states got low rewards as
they relied on
the fact that the state could always raise revenue by increasing taxes. Now
that it is
becoming clearer that some states and even the federal govt is in no position
to raise taxes,
because of the state of the US economy and the large number of unemployed
people,
there is this huge possibility that some govts will be unable to service their
debts and
will default on them. If you or your financial institution has lent money to a
state govt,
these are interesting times....
This new health system was long over due but the US will pay dearly for it.
Mervyn1092Lobo
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