Friday, March 26, 2010
Current Events Like healthcare reform? Watch where your tax dollars go
Posted by Austin Considine on Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Last week, before the US House of Representatives passed the health care bill, before Obama signed it into law, before the death threats, the "baby killers" and the "hell-no-you-can'ts," the Associated Press published a rather interesting article. It's an article that merits a bit of re-examination amid the hysterics of the last several days.
The AP discovered that Indianapolis-based WellPoint, Inc., the country's largest health insurance company based on membership "spent $1.2 million lobbying the federal government in the fourth quarter of 2009 as it weighed in on several topics tied to the health care overhaul debate."
Not exactly surprising. As the article points out, WellPoint and other large insurers may lose money because of new taxes and new rules that mandate coverage for those who fall ill, or have pre-existing conditions.
That remains to be seen, given that the bill will also steer millions of new clients to insurers because of the individual mandate, which requires everyone be insured that can afford it. But insurers clearly know enough to be worried — enough so that WellPoint pre-emptively planned rate hikes as high as 39% in California, causing a national uproar. Their investors may know a little something, too. For reasons that aren't totally clear, Wellpoint's stock has dropped since the bill was passed on Sunday, even though stocks at smaller insurers have mostly gone up.
If you're like me, and you've seen friends and family get dropped from their coverage, or denied coverage because of an inescapable illness, you probably don't have much sympathy for insurers.
No matter, if you're a tax-paying Hoosier: you've been paying for that anti-reform lobbying all the same.
In 2006, WellPoint and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), a government agency, announced that WellPoint had decided to expand its operations in Indianapolis by way of a new specialty pharmacy operation. According to an IEDC press release, the IEDC promised a $5 million forgivable loan to WellPoint, along with a $3 million tax credit.
It may not come as a surprise to learn that your tax dollars have indirectly subsidized WellPoint's operations. The move created 1,200 new jobs in Indianapolis, and some would say this is simply the way business is done. They would be right. State governments woo corporations with tax breaks because the long-term fiscal benefits of job creation and later tax earnings are self-evident.
Still, the context of that government subsidy has changed since 2006. The fact is, if you pay taxes, if you have an insurance plan with WellPoint, your money has indirectly gone toward lobbying against current health care reforms. This is just one example. If we looked closer, I'm sure we'd find all sorts of examples like this.
Comments (4)
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The difference is that Wellpoint is a private company and individuals have the ability to switch insurers. No one is arguing that health care doesn't need reform. Frivolous lawsuits are the biggest problem which Obama and his cronies refuse to address. 1.2 million hardly compares to 3-5 trillion that will inevitably be spent on national health care less than 10 years after it is fulling enacted. When the nation runs out of funds just wait and see who does and doesn't get care. Might as well prepare your kids to be good party members because that is going to be the only protected segment of society if things continue moving in this new troubling direction. Marxism is on it's way.
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"The difference is that Wellpoint is a private company and individuals have the ability to switch insurers"
Respectfully, that misses the point. Yes, WellPoint is a private insurer. But when they're getting huge tax subsidies, that means we're all paying WellPoint out of our own pockets at tax time, whether we agree with what they do or not, whether we're clients or not. There's no opting out.
It's worse than having your money funneled into a public option or insurance exchange because, unless you're a WellPoint client, you get absolutely nothing for your money. In fact, if you're pro-reform, your tax money is actually working against you by subsidizing those who lobby against it.
Right, but now we have a nationalized system that by all precedents in multiple states/countries will fail. So instead of having to just deal with tax money going to Wellpoint, we have to deal with massive amounts of tax money going to one HUGE national Wellpoint which is Obamacare. I am all for reform and things need to change, but National Health Care is NOT the way to do it.
Suppose you get tired enough with the Indiana way of governing and how they subsidize companies you disagree with? Well you have 49 other states to move to. Hopefully, one of which will suit your political tastes. With nationalized health care there is no way to escape and little hope that once the ball is rolling there will be any ways to reform its inevitable MASSIVE expenditures. So like I said a few million is a drop in the barrel compared to the trillions that are coming. So I am not necessarily pro Wellpoint as much as I'm anti-Obamacare. So basically under the current system you will have to pay for your own insurance (or be fined) as well as pay increased taxes to cover all those who don't pay. You are trading 3-8 million dollars in diverted taxes for inevitably 3-5 trillion in diverted taxes. Wellpoint for Obamacare. With no recourse.
Right, but now we have a nationalized system that by all precedents in multiple states/countries will fail. So instead of having to just deal with tax money going to Wellpoint, we have to deal with massive amounts of tax money going to one HUGE national Wellpoint which is Obamacare. I am all for reform and things need to change, but National Health Care is NOT the way to do it.
Suppose you get tired enough with the Indiana way of governing and how they subsidize companies you disagree with? Well you have 49 other states to move to. Hopefully, one of which will suit your political tastes. With nationalized health care there is no way to escape and little hope that once the ball is rolling there will be any ways to reform its inevitable MASSIVE expenditures. So like I said a few million is a drop in the barrel compared to the trillions that are coming. So I am not necessarily pro Wellpoint as much as I'm anti-Obamacare. So basically under the current system you will have to pay for your own insurance (or be fined) as well as pay increased taxes to cover all those who don't pay. You are trading 3-8 million dollars in diverted taxes for inevitably 3-5 trillion in diverted taxes. Wellpoint for Obamacare. With no recourse.
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