'No more than 8% of your income may be charged for health care' - can we add that to any legislation

[grahamhgreen]

[madville]

1. Is the 8% small businesses will have to pay related to that

I keep hearing small businesses will have to pay 8% of their payroll if they don't provide health insurance for their employees. I'm wondering how that will impact the small business I work for, our owner pays 100% of the premium for single employee coverage. Costs him $130,000 a year for 20 employees. We probably average $40,000 each on payroll so that would be $800k. SO if he dropped our coverage he would have to pay a $64,000 health care "tax" and we would get the government option under some pf the proposed plans? Sounds like my employer could save some money by dropping us all.

[grahamhgreen]

4. How bout the rule applies to all isurance. 8% cap period.

[Oregone]

2. Single Payer 100% coverage for anything past that

Who would oppose that? If the reform works, then it would never be used. How about it?

If the reform fails to correct the system, at least no one would go bankrupt again....then you lower it to 5% and try again with the insurance companies' backs against the wall.

[aquart]

3. I would LIKE to see CEOs pay 8% of their income for healthcare.

Y'know, I think that's the way to go. We're talking gross income including bonuses and benefits, of course.

[grahamhgreen]

6. 8% of the 1.6 billion the CEO of United Health Care got would be close to 130 mil!

That would even out some of the inequality in the current system.

[aquart]

7. Yes. Yes, it would.

[TexasObserver]

5. Recommend

[tocqueville]

8. Ok in France the financing is the following

Financing the general system :

47% is a tax on employers (paid by him),
34% is a tax on the salary (paid by you)
10% is a tax on booze and cigarettes (paid by them and you)
10% is a tax on pharma industry (paid by them)

it covers 85% of the French to 70% (100% if the ailment is permanent). Most of the French add a private insurance of roughly $100-150 a month to get 100% coverage.

The rest is called special regime and is made of special coverages for state employment like trains, electricity and... parlamentaries (internal state budget)

people with no income or incomes under $1000 are covered 100% by the State too.

OK how much pays a French employer only to cover healthcare and accidents ? roughly 20 % of the salary, the employee 8%.

(notice that the employer pays totally other taxes that cover mostly unemployment and pension. So if he pays you a 1000 his real cost is 1600)

This system cost half of what it cost in the US and covers everybody. Questions are very seldom asked, the doctor decides and you show your card an that's it (computerisation has made deposit in advance superfluous in most cases). For dentistry and optics, the quality of your private insurance is more important. But for 100 bucks, you can get practically 100% coverage fo all normal procedures. You can choose your doctor, private clinic or public hospital and insurance type.

Why it can't be applied in the US is a mystery.

[many a good man]

9. 28% of pay goes to health care in France?!?! Tell me this is wrong?

Employer pays 20% of salary in health care tax and the employee pays 8%? WTF? This is outrageous. Tell me I'm reading this wrong!

I currently pay 3% of my salary in health care premiums. No deductible, but usually a $25 co-pay with my HMO. I doubt my employer pays much more than another 3% of my salary. (I could be wrong about that, tho). I don't mind paying more to see all my fellow Americans covered, but this seems a tad too much!

I've heard that the average big American corporation pays 25-30% of an employee's salary in benefits. That includes health care AND retirement and disability and parking and whatever else. 28% just for health care would drive salaries way down for most Americans. Tell me this isn't true!

I admit that the salary for a professional in my field is much lower in Europe than it is in America. Is this the reason why?

[tocqueville]

11. no it's correct

I checked the last figures

an employer in France pays roughly 55% in charges for health coverage, unemployement and pension. Of this roughly 20% go to healthcare (including accidents).
That is to say if your wage is $1000 he will pay 1600. The 600 go to the state. The employee will pay 80. (a smaller part is deductible). Figures for Sweden are somewhat similar.

1) the number of small and middle sized enterprises in France is in percentage compared 10% higher than in the US (OECD stats). So they are not "killed" out.
2) the minimum wage is $12.5/hour. A full time (151 hours month) = $1898 which means $1420 after taxes (which means the whole social shebang is covered)
3) why does that work in France (we went out of recession yesterday with Germany) and not in the US ? Actually the median salary is $2170 and the average $2700.
4) figures for Germany are probably comparable and they are the biggest exporter in the world. The EU as a whole is ahead of the US in GDP, the biggest exporter and the biggest importer. All those countries have relatively similar welfare. Everybody is covered, even the poor (destituted, homeless etc..).
5) notice that the French (as a whole) still manage to put 20% of their money in savings. And for 80% of them their standard of living is maybe less "flashy" but still very comparable to the US one (filthy rich not counted).

My answer is that the US model (low minimum salary/low taxes in general) isn't sustainable. Since your active population pool is bigger (5 times ours) it should be easier to have our model and probably have lower premiums. And the nerve of your wealth has been oil that costs maybe 25% of ours since 80% of the price of gas is taxes here.


There must be a system fault

[GodlyDemocrat]

10. You can, but watch health care then go into the toilet

If we really want quality health care for everyone we should keep our spending levels on health care the same, just change the distribution of costs so everybody is covered and those who can afford it bear the costs.