Now that US health care reform has finally passed, everyone is scrambling to decipher what it actually means for America’s future. Healthy Policies has been pretty quiet on the HCR front. This is because while the passage of this bill will definitely provide more people with access to health care, the impact HCR will have on the overall health of Americans is less clear. Middle class Americans with access to health care are typically far less healthy than their counterparts in other developed countries. Health care is an important determinant of health, but in the US it is a small piece of a much bigger problem.
A remarkable piece by Sam Pizzigati of the online newsletter Too Much however, outlines two major components of the health care reform legislation that begin to address the root cause of ill health in America: economic inequality.
One provision of the legislation subjects the investment income of individuals making over $200,000 a year to a 3.8% Medicare tax. Sam explains that “this represents a major shift in tax policy” because “up until now, Medicare taxes have been, at worst, a minor irritant for the rich, since the wealthy get most of their income from the money their money makes, not the work they do.
Another provision of HCR legislation discourages excessive executive pay by denying health insurance companies any corporate tax deductions on paychecks exceeding $500,000 a year.
Although these provisions don’t go nearly as far as they could, they do provide a welcome basis from which future efforts can most definitely be supported.
